Baby Blues
by RyansDreamMaker
Summary: Charlie is hiding a massive secret from her family, but when Bass finds out it all starts to blow up in her face. Bass doesn't know how to handle the situation either, so they lean on each other for support.
1. Chapter 1

A/N This story takes place after season one but ignores most of season two. No Patriots, no Conner. Let me know what you guys think!

* * *

_Rough hands gripping her hips, tongue teasing her neck, sweaty skin delicious under her fingertips. His eyes on her, making her whole body light up with passion, with life. Their bodies moving as one in a frantic rhythm, so close to their ultimate goal._

Charlie is startled awake by the wailing sound coming from the bassinet a few feet from her bed. The heat coursing through her body is familiar, the dream having become a staple of her everyday life the past few months. Groggily getting to her feet, she scoops up the screaming infant, hoping she hadn't woken the entire house. She lifts her tank top and watches her five month old daughter greedily latch onto her nipple, suckling to her own contentment.

It's almost funny how used to this she's gotten. In the past few months her life had become a whirlwind of diapers, breastfeeding, laundry, and more diapers. Her little girl was beautiful and perfect, and she would do anything to keep her safe. Anything.

XxX

Bass wasn't really sure what he was doing anymore. All he knew was that Duncan was a cold hearted bitch and he had to get the hell out of New Vegas. So he left. Honey blonde curls and pale blue eyes still haunting his dreams, his waking thoughts, his every step. Roaming around The Plains was a great way to get yourself killed though and since the old Monroe Republic was completely out of the question, he'd made his way towards Texas.

That's how he ended up here, in some rinky-dink town far enough from Austin to stay off of Carver's radar but still well enough within the confines of the Texas safety net. He actually couldn't even remember the name of the town, something with a 'W', like Wilson or Wilcox. Something like that. Not that it mattered, he just needed some supplies from their market and then he'd be on his way again. Unless he found a nice bar and a pretty lady, then Warren might actually be worth a night. If she was really pretty, he might stay for two.

Bartering with the batty old lady over the oil for his lamp is easy. She's a sucker for a charming smile and he's laying it on thick. He feels a little guilty but his stockpile of diamonds is starting to diminish and without a way to replenish it, he'll have to be extra careful. Almost satisfied with the price, he turns as if deep in thought to see if she'll go any lower, and that's when he sees it. Just a glimpse really, but those curls are unforgettable.

There's no way, right? What are the odds that she would be here?

In the back of his mind Bass vaguely recalls Rachel's family being from Texas, but he'd never given any thought to the information. Until now.

Apologizing quickly for wasting her time, Bass leaves the old lady with her oil, and goes in pursuit of his nighttime vision. The crowd of people is large, the weather perfect for shopping, but he weaves his way in and out of the mass with the ease of someone who's used to thinking on their feet. He's rounding the corner when he catches a glimpse of something equally familiar and heart pounding.

Tall and lanky, pale skin, dark brown hair. Bass notices the sword belt strapped around his brother's waist first but is instantly distracted by the thing Miles is holding in his hands. It's a baby. He holds it up high in the air over his head, the child's squeals of delight audible even over the noisy crowd. Bass watches chubby, little hands reach down to grab Miles' face, his brother pretending to chew on it's tiny fingers.

His heart stops. Even from this distance he can see the tuft of white blonde hair on it's head and the blueness of it's eyes. It's beautiful, filling his heart with a warmth that he didn't even think was possible after all this time. He wipes at his eyes to clear the sudden blurryness and finds his fingertips wet. He's crying. Somewhere deep in his chest, Bass knows that the child isn't just any child, it's his.

XxX

Miles is holding onto little Emily while she talks to Miss Decker about some grains when she feels... it. Like a burning sensation in her lower back that makes her skin clam up. Charlie whips her head around to see what's caused this change in her body, she scans the crowd for threats but sees none.

"Charlie, what's wrong?" Miles asks, now searching the crowd himself, the baby nestled in one arm with his other hand on the hilt of his sword.

Charlie frowns and shakes her head. "Nothing, I just thought..." She hesitates, "I don't know, just had the chills I guess."

Miles scans the crowd one last time before turning her way and putting the back of his hand to her forehead. "Maybe you're coming down with something, we should get you back to Gene."

She can't help but roll her eyes at her overprotective uncle. "I'm fine, Miles. We're almost done here, then we can go home." But the burning in her spine doesn't seem to go away.

XxX

There she is. All blonde curls and blue eyes. Just like he remembered her. Only now she was different. Her hips were a little wider - he'd spent a lot of time thinking about those hips - and her shirt couldn't hide the still slightly swollen flesh of her abdomen. He saw her back straighten, her head turning to look into the crowd. Rather than letting himself get spotted, he ducked down and sped off into an alley.

Bass took deep breaths to try an calm himself down. Why was he so worried anyway? He wasn't doing anything wrong, he was allowed to pass through random towns in the middle of no where. He chances a look out onto the street, catching Miles with his hand on Charlie's forehead. He can't help but chuckle. When had Miles become Mr. Mom?

He watches the trio from a distance, crushing the little voice in his head that keeps telling him to go to her. If he's right, if that really is his kid, then this has to be done carefully. He'll have to watch from a distance and find the best way to approach them.

Approach Miles, or Charlie? And say what exactly, 'hey, is that my kid?'

No. He needs to be smart. The Matheson's hate him more than anything, but he'll be dead before he let's that stand in the way of him and his child. He'll watch and wait. Bide his time until he comes up with a plan.

When they leave the market he follows at a reasonable distance. It seems that life in suburbia has made Miles soft since he isn't even trying to check for a tail. Oh well, that just makes it easier for him. As they near an old, white house near the end of a street he veers off into somebody's backyard in order to skirt around to the back without being seen.

As the back of the house comes into view he has to hold back an audible groan. Rachel Matheson is in the yard wearing a large flowered hat and gloves, wielding a small shovel in the garden. He hates her. God, does he hate her.

Resisting the urge to pull out his gun and blow her brains out right there, he backtracks further into the woods to get a good vantage point. He climbs an old tree and pulls out his ancient binoculars. Rachel's still in the garden, but now she's on her feet holding the baby - his baby - while Miles digs in the dirt. Charlie's head pop's out of the back door and he can see them all speaking to each other, probably talking about stupid town gossip, unaware that he is watching.

XxX

Charlie still feels the burning in her back, but ignores it while she and Grandpa make dinner. When the food is all gone, Emily fed, changed, and put to bed, she and Miles sit out on the back porch together to enjoy a drink.

The sun is setting and Miles is on his third glass when he slings an arm around her shoulders and pulls her close. "You know that guy Rick was asking about you again."

She rolls her eyes. "And I'm still not interested."

Miles chuckles and kisses the top of her head. "I know. I just worry about you, you know? You disappeared for months and then showed up pregnant, claiming to have no idea who the father is-"

"I told you, Miles, it was a one night thing-"

"I know, I know," he sighs. "It's just not like you, that's all. You know you can tell me anything, right?" He looks at her, his face full of the emotions he usually keeps locked up inside.

"I know," she whispers softly, "but there's nothing to tell. I really don't remember."

Miles nods and kisses her forehead. "Night, kid."

"Goodnight." She watches her uncle sway slightly before finally making it through the doorway. The guilt she's been carrying with her for over a year burning in her chest.

XxX

He can't believe that Miles left Charlie alone, outside, in the dark. What the hell? That's just asking to get your niece kidnapped!

He watches her rise from the porch, his worry subsiding because he figures she must be heading inside, but it comes back in full force when she descends the steps into the yard. Without really thinking, Bass is out of the tree and on the ground before he can tell his brain that this is a bad idea. His feet automatically carry him in her direction. She's filling a bucket with water from the pump and before he has the chance to turn and run back Charlie's already looking directly at him.

The blood pounding in his ears is so loud that he barely registers her shriek of surprise, or fear, either one. The back door bangs open and Bass is gone before whoever it is, probably Miles, can make it down the steps. He runs, fast and hard, as far as he can.

XxX

Charlie's staring at the spot that he had just been standing in. _Him_. The man she'd been trying not to think about for months, the one that plagues her dreams every night. And he was there. Or had she imagined it? He disappeared so quickly that now she wasn't so sure.

Miles appears at her side, gun in one hand and sword in the other, all traces of the whiskey he'd drunk gone. "What's wrong?"

"Uh-I-uh..." She shakes her head to try and clear her jumbled thoughts. It couldn't have been him. It wasn't. She takes a deep breath just as her mother comes stomping out onto the porch, shotgun in hand. "Nothing," she lies easily, "I think it was just a raccoon. Scared me. Sorry, guys."

Miles and Rachel both sag with relief. "It's alright, sweetheart," her mother says. "Just next time, try not to give me a heart attack. I would actually like to see my granddaughter grow up."

Charlie nods with a smile, looking over at Miles who suddenly looks a little tipsy again. "Sorry, Grandpa, won't happen again."

He glares, but with no real menace behind it. "How many times do I have to tell you, it's _Uncle_, not Grandpa."

Rolling her eyes, Charlie leads her uncle into the house, her eyes flicking back to the water pump, wondering if Monroe had really been there or if she'd just had too much to drink.


	2. Chapter 2

Bass just keeps on running. His breath coming in sharp gasps, air shredding at his lungs, and his knee - injured years ago in the deserts of Afghanistan - is protesting fiercely. When he figures he's run at least a mile he lets himself slow to a walk, stopping and listening every now and then to make sure he wasn't followed.

Stupid. Fucking. Moron. What ever happened to watch and wait? Now Charlie knew he was here and she probably already had Miles on the hunt. With that thought in mind, Bass continued on more cautiously, making sure not to leave a trail that his brother could follow.

He would go back in the morning to scope out the situation. In the mean time, he needed to sleep and his knee needed a break.

XxX

Charlie lay awake staring at the ceiling in her and Emily's bedroom. Hours had passed and she was certain that it must almost be dawn. But she couldn't shake the image in her mind of Monroe standing there, behind the shed, so late into the night. His initial appearance terrified her. Why was he here? Was he going to try to take Emily? That's the real reason she had been sitting up all night with a loaded gun in her hand. Every little noise the house made, every creak and groan, had her on her feet with the gun pointing at the door.

Sighing, Charlie rolled over onto her side in an attempt to get more comfortable. It didn't work. Every time she tried to close her eyes she could see his face in her mind. The worst part about it was that she expected him to be scary, lifeless and dead, like the last time she'd seen him. Only when he'd appeared by the water pump he'd looked... scared? Worried, maybe. She wasn't sure.

The only thing she knew for sure was that she hadn't been imagining things. Monroe was here, in Willoughby, she just didn't know why yet.

XxX

Early morning came and went, and Bass found that he couldn't stay away from the Matheson house for long. High up in his tree again, he was watching Rachel wash dishes through the kitchen window and the baby sitting in her highchair - he assumed it was a her due to the pink outfit - through the open back door. Charlie wasn't anywhere in sight, he hadn't seen her all morning. Though he had seen Miles and Gene leave early on, both with sack lunches in hand.

Technically, the plan is to watch the house and find the best way to approach Charlie, but he can't stop looking at the little girl. She's perfect. Giggling to herself while she plays with bits of fruit on her tray. It's taking all of his self control not to run right into the house, snatch her up, and run away so he won't have to deal with the Matheson complications.

That's the easy way, sure. But the child needs her mother, she needs Charlie, so he won't do that. No matter how much he wants to.

The day passes slowly, Rachel going out into the yard to hang laundry with the baby in tow and Charlie finally making an appearance sometime after lunch. She heads out into the yard and Bass knows that he spooked her the night before. Her head turns left and right, her eyes scanning the area before she steps fully onto the porch. Bass can't help but think that if nothing else, he's at least caused her to be more vigilant. The mother of his child has to be able to take care of her after all.

Miles comes back late in the day and Bass has to fight down the jealousy in his chest as he watches his brother playing with his daughter in the yard. She's still young, five or six months by his math, so she mostly just giggles and rolls around, but that's supposed to be him down there with her. Not Miles. It's irrational, he knows, but he'd always been jealous of Miles. The fact that he was now jealous of something that actually was his only made it worse.

As the sun begins to set, he watches Miles and Charlie sit down on the back porch again with glasses in their hands. A nightly ritual maybe? It could be his way in. The two chat for a while, Miles' laughter carrying farther and farther with each sip. When Miles finally gets up to go inside Bass watches Charlie carefully.

Her head turns left and right, scanning the yard carefully, her eyes settling on the shed and the water pump. She slowly descends the steps into the yard and her nerves are almost tangible even from this distance. Behind the shed, she's out of sight for a few moments but comes back into his view carrying a bucket most likely full of water. She stops in the doorway, her eyes scanning the backyard one more time before going into the house.

A nightly ritual? It would seem so. Now he just had to wait until tomorrow to try and talk to her.

XxX

After a crappy night's sleep Charlie wasn't in the mood to do much of anything. She'd spent most of the day lounging around the house letting her mother enjoy some Grandma-time.

But after Miles heads inside for the night she feels that burning and tingling in her spine again. Like she's being watched only there's no one in sight. She holds her head high, acting braver than she really feels, and goes to the water pump to fill the bucket with morning wash water. Her back stiffens as the back of the shed comes into view and she averts her gaze, pretending not to be looking for a man who may or may not be there. Who may not even be in the state. Who may not even be alive.

So what if he is here? She doesn't owe him anything. And there's no way he could know about Emily anyway, so there's no need to worry. She's still hoping it was just her imagination though.

XxX

The next day, just like clockwork, Charlie and Miles sit out on the porch to have a drink and Bass watches with amusement. His brother had never seemed the type to enjoy domestic life, but from what he'd seen Miles was doing great. Bass is happy for him, really, he just wishes he could have the same thing.

Miles is getting up from his seat and Bass knows this is his chance. He needs to move fast. Down the tree, across the yard, and behind the shed, he leans against the old building with his hands safely where Charlie will be able to see them and waits.

He knows the moment she see him. A barely audible intake of breath and she's frozen, staring at him like a deer caught in headlights. Gently easing away from the shed with his hands still well in her view, he gives her a tentative smile. "I'm not going to hurt you." Her eyes subtlety flick in the direction of the house, worry crossing her face. "I'm not here to hurt them either."

Eyes narrowed, she looks directly at him. "Why are you here then?" Though her tone seems more worried than angry.

Deciding to skip whatever bullshit story he could come up with, he goes straight for the truth. "Is she mine?" The slight widening of her big, blue eyes is enough of a conformation. Even though he knew all along, seeing the truth of it in her eyes makes his heart swell with happiness. "Can I see her?" And he hates how rough his voce sounds. Almost desperate.

Charlie still hasn't moved, her feet frozen in place but he can see the emotions as they play out over her face. Fear, guilt, more fear. Her head tilts in the direction of the house and something else crosses her face, something he can't quite identify. "Not now," she says quietly, "not here."

Those words are more than he could have ever hoped for, more than he could have ever dreamed. But the dream is shattered by Miles' voice calling from across the yard. "Charlie? What's taking so long?"

XxX

All of that work convincing herself that it wasn't real, that he wasn't real, thrown out the window. Monroe's in the yard and he knows about Emily. He wants to see her, the sincerity in his voice and face undeniable. Guilt pulls at her heart. If Miles finds out he'll be crushed, but if she keeps Emily from her father that could hurt her daughter even more. She's a mother now, and she will do what her own mother never could. Put her daughter first.

"Not here, not now." Miles is calling for her from the house and she looks away for just a moment, but when she looks back at the shed, Monroe is gone.

"Kid, you ok?" Miles calls.

"Yeah, I'm coming." Grabbing the bucket she heads back inside hoping that she hadn't just made a huge mistake.

XxX

Practically bouncing with giddy excitement, Bass takes a bath in the river in an attempt to calm himself down. She said yes. Well, more or less. '_Not here, not now._' So when? He should have asked, he wanted too, but Miles was there and he couldn't risk Charlie changing her mind.

No. He will wait until tomorrow and approach her again. At least that way she will have had some time to think about the when and where.

XxX

It's a bad idea. Terrible. So many things could go wrong. And yet here she is, gun in the waistband of her jeans, Emily craddled in a holder against her chest, and a diaper bag slung over her shoulder. Miles is at the sheriff's office and her mom and grandpa are both at the clinic. With the house to herself, Charlie just can't help it. The desperate look in Monroe's eyes had haunted her all night.

Finding his tracks behind the shed is simple. Large, booted footprints easy to follow. The trail leads pretty far, but Charlie's not afraid. Not really, curious would probably be a better explanation.

It's late in the morning, though not quite noon and Emily is starting to fuss. She's hungry, Charlie knows, but they're getting close to their destination. She can feel it.

XxX

Stomach growling, Bass plops down a hollow log to devour the fresh meat he'd managed to catch. Not being much of a hunter himself it's just squirrel, but it's better than nothing. Mouth hanging open with his hand halfway there, he stops and slowly turns toward the rustling in the trees.

His hand is on his weapon and pointing in the trees before he even blinks. "Come out of there with your hands where I can see them." To his complete and utter shock it's none other than Charlie, one hand raised and the other on the bundle against her chest.

Bass drops the gun. Literally.

"Hello." She looks nervous and awkward, and he can't stop himself from thinking that she's absolutely adorable.

"What are you doing here?" If he could slap himself he would, his mother had always told him not to question blessings.

"I thought you said that... I just... I don't know?" She seems confused and lost, but luckily he doesn't have to help her figure any of that out because the baby suddenly starts to cry. Bass is instantly on alert. "What, what's wrong?"

To his annoyance Charlie just laughs. "Nothing, she's hungry. It's lunchtime." She shrugs as if that was obvious and he can't help but feel stupid.

"Oh, right."

She looks around carefully before moving to sit on the same log he'd just abandoned. Situating the baby in her lap, he sees her eyes flick self consciously in his direction.

Oh. Right.

Bass averts his gaze, pretending to busy himself with the fire while she gets the baby settled.

"Why did you come to Willoughby?" She asks quietly.

Deciding it must be safe to turn around now, he looks at her, finding her chest covered by a thin blanket, the baby's little legs and chubby feet the only things visible. "I didn't... well, I did, but-" He stops so he can gather his thoughts. "I was just passing through for supplies. It was... luck that I saw you in the market."

"You're the one who was watching me." It's not a question, just a verification of what she already knows.

Bass nods, deciding again that the truth is probably his best bet. "At first I couldn't believe it and then I saw Miles holding... what's her name?"

A chuckle escapes her lips. "Emily. Emily Erin Matheson."

All he can manage is a nod. It beautiful and perfect, not overly flashy but enough that not every single person she meets will have the same name. "Erin, didn't you have a friend - you named her after the fat guy?"

Her eyes turn harsh and Bass instantly knows he's said something wrong. "His name is Aaron Pittman, and yes, I named her after him. He is her godfather after all."

"I didn't mean-"

"Yes, you did." She interrupts angrily, beginning to rise to her feet, trying to hold the baby in place with one arm.

Panic floods his whole body and he rushes forward, stopping short when she pulls a gun from her jeans. "Whoa, wait, please, I just want..."

"What?" She's sitting down again, but the anger hasn't faded and the gun hasn't wavered. "What do you want from me?"

He swallows, his eyes falling to the chubby feet sticking out from under the blanket. "I just want to know my daughter," he says softly.

Something akin to sympathy flashes across Charlie's face. She nods ever so slightly and sighs, setting the gun down on the log beside her. "I understand," she says gently as Emily starts the wiggle under the thin cover. Keeping herself covered, Charlie pulls Emily out from under it and hesitantly holds her out to him.

Bass' brain is shouting at him to take her, but the message takes it's time getting to the rest of his body. He gently takes a squirming Emily from her mother and looks down at her perfect, little face. Sky blue eyes stare up at him curiously and he can't help but smile, the movement causing Emily to squeal with delight, her tiny hands clapping together happily. Tears fall uninvited down his cheeks and he swipes them away, angry at them for obstructing his view his daughter.

Ignoring Charlie completely, he sits down with Emily in his lap and just stares. The drool falling from the corner of her mouth would be disgusting to anyone else, but to him it's the most perfect thing on the planet. If anyone, including himself, had thought he was incapable of loving anyone anymore, Emily proved them wrong.

"She's perfect," he whispers, voice loving with worship.

XxX

It's uncomfortable to watch a grown man cry, but Monroe's tears are drawing her in like a magnet and she can't help but smile at his reaction to Emily. It's almost the exact same one she'd had the day she was born. Something in her heart tells her that she made the right choice. Coming to see Monroe and bringing Emily was the right thing to do, his reaction merely solidifying that in her mind.

In the distance, the bell tower in Willoughby rings, signaling that it's now noon. Panic hits her quickly, making her jump to her feet and start to gather her things. Monroe looks up at her with sudden worry written all over his face. "I have to go," she tells him hurriedly, "Miles will be back soon and he doesn't know about... well, about you, so I have to get back."

He nods slowly, his eyes not leaving Emily's face as he drops a kiss on her forehead. Handing her over, he looks directly into Charlie's eyes. "Thank you." The emotion and seriousness behind it conveyed through his eyes.

"I'll come back on Thursday, is that ok?"

Surprise takes over his face and he stutters for a moment. "Yeah, yes, I-I'll be here."

A smile tugs at Charlie's lips. "Good, see you then."

She's already out of the clearing when she hears him call out softly, "see you."

* * *

A/N Wow, I'm glad that so many of you like this! Thanks for all the support you guys! :-)


	3. Chapter 3

A/N It's flashback time! How did little Emily come to be? Well, I'll let the flashback tell you. :-)

* * *

Oh how she wishes she hadn't said that. But Monroe had looked so sad and defeated when she turned to leave that she couldn't help but tell him she'd come back. Which she really shouldn't have done. Sure it isn't so bad to go see him once, but given the fact that they have a child together, once would turn into twice, which turns into three times, which turns into visits every Monday and Thursday as well as alternate weekends.

And that's a big commitment.

Spending the rest of her life shuffling Emily back and fourth for visits with her father doesn't sound good. But he is Emily's father and it's not like poor baby Emily got to choose her fucked up, ex-dictator Daddy. No, that blame falls directly on Charlie's shoulders.

Plus it's not like she's all rainbows and sunshine either, poor Emily got the short end of the stick in the parents department, but Charlie's determined to give her the best she can. Which unfortunately invloves Monroe. Which unfortunately means she'll have to tell Miles that his little booger-bear is actually the child of his ex-best friend/dead-as-far-as-he's-concerned brother.

Miles chooses that moment to plop down in his usual spot with their drinks in his hand. Studying her face for a second, he sighs and sits back, "alright, just tell me. How bad is it?"

The tears are already gathering in her eyes so she wipes them away and grabs her glass, downing the whiskey all in one. They sit in silence for a few minutes, Miles letting her gather her thoughts and Charlie trying to gather the courage to finally tell the truth. "It's Monroe," she whispers.

His eyebrows shoot high up on his forehead, dark brown eyes turning black with anger at the mere mention of his former friends' name. But Miles seems to notice the sadness in her and pushes his own issues aside to try and help his clearly struggling niece. "What about him, kid?"

Charlie shakes her head, wishing that Miles would just figure it out himself so she wouldn't have to say it out loud. His silence tells her that that isn't going to happen though. "Emily... he's her father."

Brown eyes widen in shock. Miles' face contorting into a look of disgust then changing to stern. "That's not funny, Charlie."

She shakes her head, the tears falling down her cheeks and dripping from her chin. "I'm not joking. I swear." Even though part of her wishes she was.

Miles shakes his head, giving her a concerned look. "How... did he... did he hurt you?"

"No, Miles," she almost wants to laugh at the look of pure relief on his face. "It wasn't like that."

He nods, seeming to understand before abruptly standing up and going down the porch steps towards the shed. Charlie follows behind him anxiously. "He was here, wasn't he?" Miles grinds his teeth together searching the ground for footprints. "That's why you yelled the other night, it wasn't a fucking raccoon, Bass was here."

Unable to meet his eyes, Charlie nods and studies a particularly interesting blade of grass. "I'm sorry, Miles. I just didn't know what to do?"

"What you should have done was tell me!" He shouts angrily. "Hell, Charlie," lowering his voice to a hoarse whisper, "what if your mom had seen him, huh? Then what were you going to do?"

"I didn't plan on anyone ever finding out, ok? I didn't think I would ever even see him again."

Closing his eyes, Miles pinches the bridge of his nose. "Charlie... Bass is weird about family. He's not just going to go away because you wish he will."

"I know that. I told him we would go see him again on Thursday."

Miles blinks at her. "Are you insane? You talked to him?"

Getting irritated with being treated like a child, Charlie points an angry finger at his face. "Yes, I talked to him. As you can imagine he was a little curious about the baby that happens to look just like him!" She leans against the shed trying to calm herself down.

Miles leans next to her and sighs. "How did this even happen, Charlie?"

Her head falls back against the shed with a thud, her eyes staring up at the dark sky. "It's a long story..."

_Last August..._

It's almost too easy. Jeff tells her exactly where to go and she can't help herself, she's there by the end of the day. The crowd in New Vegas is just starting up for the night as the sun sinks down on the horizon. The fight tent is easy to find, Monroe even easier.

Shirtless, sweaty, and covered in blood Monroe looks like the perfect fighter. Muscles rippling with every movement, his jaw set in determination. Charlie watches and is surprised when she finally catches a glimpse of his face. There are dark bags under his eyes, his face is a little gaunt, and his eyes are a bottomless pit of nothingness. This man is nothing like the one she'd met back in Philadelphia. This man looks like he's standing on the brink between life and death.

Pity worms it's way into her gut, but Charlie brushes it off, reminding herself that she doesn't care. After he's pummeled his opponent into the dirt she watches closely to see were he goes. The blonde hooker on his arm loses interest after he loses all of his money at the tables and she finds herself chuckling at the thought that the great Sebastian Monroe has to hire hookers.

She follows him to where ever he's headed, intent on getting the job done quickly and getting the hell out of Vegas. Maybe when it as done, she'll finally be able to sleep without her dad and Danny's faces haunting her dreams. As they round a corner and he climbs into a rusty, old trailer she takes one last strengthening breath before taking her knife in hand and flinging the trailer door open.

Monroe is standing with his pants around his ankles and his boots tangled in the mess around his feet. Charlie's eyes immediately flick lower to find that he isn't wearing any underwear. When she looks back up at his face, standing in the doorway of his trailer with a knife in her hand, she's a little surprised to see no anger there, no fear. Nothing.

They stand and stare at each other for what seems like hours, him finally breaking the suffocating silence. "So are you gonna do it or should I make coffee first?" She doesn't respond. The cavalier way he's taking about the end of his own life doesn't sit right in her stomach, it feels too... familiar. He shrugs, "I'll get the coffee going then," and pulls his pants back up to head over to the tiny kitchenette, leaving his boots in the middle of the floor.

The knife is in her hand and yet he's still breathing. Not just breathing, but making coffee. For her. Who is there to kill him.

"You gonna come in or just stand there with that knife all day?" He asks without turning to look at her.

There's something like amusement in his voice and it sparks white hot anger in her chest. She lunges towards his back with the knife raised high, but he deflects, turning at the last moment and pinning her body up against a wall of cabinets. One hand twisted behind her back, the other holding the knife forced far up over her head, Monroe's face inches from hers.

"This is the only free bee you're gonna get, Charlotte. Now you should walk away." He twists the wrist above her head and the knife clatters to the ground.

She twitches involuntarily, suddenly feeling very vulnerable pressed against his body with no weapon to protect herself with. He seems to sense her uneasiness and chuckles low in his throat causing his whole body, and hers, to vibrate with the effort. "Relax, I prefer my woman willing."

"Wow, you're such a gentlemen," she growls.

He shrugs, "not really."

His nonchalance about the entire situation is really starting to grate on her nerves. Especially since he still hasn't let her go and is still pressed firmly up against her. She angrily pushes herself against him in an attempt to get away. "Let me go."

"Are you done trying to kill me?" He asks with a sly smille.

"Not a chance."

"Then I can't let you go. I may not be doing the best job of taking care of myself, but I'm not about to sit here and let you kill me."

She's not sure what to say to that so she keeps her mouth shut, trying to figure out the increasingly irritating man holding her hostage. They're both silent for a long time, Charlie's arms are getting tried but Monroe's grip hasn't slipped once. If she doesn't do something soon she'll probably fall asleep standing right there. She's focusing on the wall behind him, uncomfortably aware that he's watching her face with rapt attention. Oddly enough, she doesn't feel threatened anymore, she just feels confused... lost... broken.

She didn't leave Willoughby because she needed to get away from her mother, though she did needs that, Charlie left because she needed to do something. _Anything_. She'd become so numb that she couldn't even feel it when she cut her finger while sharpening her knife. She left because she wanted to feel like a person again, not just the shell of one.

And now here she is, _feeling_ things. Overwhelming sadness for the loss of her brother, her father, Nora. Guilt for the role she played in their deaths as well as the thousands that died when the bombs dropped. A single tear slips down her cheek and she sucks in a shuddering breath. Monroe gently swipes it away with his thumb and she looks into his eyes, finding a deep sadness buried away under years of pretending. A sense of understanding passes between them and Charlie realizes that he's released her arms but hasn't backed away, leaving their bodies close and a familiar heat stirring in her gut. His eyes burn with something fierce and intense, and she knows he feels the heat too, like a friend coming home after a long winter.

Finally, they can feel again.

His leans in those extra few inches and brushes his lips softly against hers, the sensation strange after so long without noticing the things around her. The hairs of his beard tickle her skin, making her tingle all over and suddenly her whole body is gushing with desire. She grabs the back of his head and yanks his lips down to her level, covering them with her own. His tongue sweeps out and she opens up form him, moaning as his rough hands grip her hips and he pulls her towards the bed.

Clothes drop to the floor on their way there, leaving them both stripped clean of past mistakes, even if only for a while. Charlie stretches out on the bed, him following and trailing kisses up her body. They melt together in a tangle of kisses, limbs, and regrets.

When the sun finally breaks through the dingy curtains on the dirty window, Charlie silently dresses and slips out the door. She makes her way through the sleepy town, leaving it and the problems she'd brought with her behind. It won't be until she washes up in a stream later that night that she'll notice the white substance pooled in her underwear and another few weeks before she realizes what that truly means.


	4. Chapter 4

Once the intial shock of being able to see and touch his daughter wore off, Bass couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. His daughter and her mother had come to visit him in a clearing, in a forest. No house to host them in or a couch for them to sit on, just some trees and a fucking log. Plus, the first time his daughter had ever set eyes on him his beard was crusted to his face with dirt.

It didn't matter though, Charlie said that they would come back on Thursday, which meant that he had two days to clean himself up and get his shit together. Gathering what little possessions he had, Bass set out to find some more comfortable accommodations. And a bath.

After nearly two hours of stumbling around the woods that lined the walls around Willoughby, he finally found a house with a structure that was still mostly intact. A tiny kitchen just inside the door, a living room off to the right, a useless bathroom, and one bedroom complete with a thin, holey, possibly moldy mattress. Something a little less disgusting would be preferable, but given his time frame and lack of funds this would do. He needed to clean it and take a bath before he did anything else though.

Thankfully, the well in the back yard still had clean water in it. He took a bath, trimmed his beard, changed into the only other clothes he had, and then went into town to find some real food. He used the last of his money to buy some potatoes and a bag of flour. It wasn't much, but it was better than squirrel.

He spent the rest of the day alternating between wondering how Emily was doing and cleaning up his new, hopefully temporary, home. While he was clearing out the cabinet under the sink he found a kitten in there all by itself. It was frail looking and whined loudly when he picked it up. He was so tempted to toss it outside and move on with his day, but the pathetic thing wouldn't stop meowing so he put some water in a cup and watched the little cat lap it up. Poor thing was probably starving. Sighing, he dug in his pack to find something to feed it.

First a daughter, now a goddamn cat. And he didn't even like cats.

XxX

Charlie and Miles had talked late into the night about what had happened in Vegas - she'd skipped the dirty details for both of their benefits - and discussed what her options were. Miles had half-heartedly offered to just kill Bass and be done with him but he'd let it go pretty quickly when she explained that she planned to let her daughter have a relationship with her father. No matter who he was. It took a while, but he'd eventually agreed with her. Though he did say that he definitely wasn't going to be the one to tell her mother. Chicken.

As she walked through the woods with Emily she couldn't help but feel better though. Keeping her deep, dark secret for so long had left her feeling lonely and isolated, but with Miles now on her side she felt ten times better. The only problem now was that the clearing was empty. No Bass, no pack, even the remnants of the fire were gone. "Hello?" The silence around her left her oddly sad and disappointed.

"Hey," Bass came stumbling out from behind a tree, "sorry, I had to relocate. The middle of the woods isn't exactly a great place to sleep." He looked much cleaner than the last time she'd seen him, his beard was trimmed and his clothes were cleaner. He looked good.

"It's alright," he reached for Emily and she handed the baby over, "for a second I thought you might have left."

Bass wasn't even looking at her, his eyes were focused on Emily while she played with the buttons on his shirt. "I'm not going anywhere Charlie. Not while you guys are here."

She knew it was stupid, but for some reason those words made her heart skip a beat. "Good. Emily's going to need you."

He stopped playing with the baby long enough to look at her seriously. "Don't worry, I'll be here."

"Yeah, that's what Miles said."

"You told Miles?"

Charlie nodded and sat down. "Yeah, he was pissed at first, but he's still talking to me so I figure that must be a good sign."

He huffed a laugh absent mindedly while he played with Emily. Charlie watched the pair quietly. It was a little strange how easily Emily got along with him, usually she shied away from anyone other than herself and Miles. Even Rachel sometimes had a hard time with her. But Bass was a natural, her babbling didn't seem to confuse him at all he merely talked to her like she was any other person and she watched him with rapt attention. It was memorizing and heart warming all at once.

When she finally realized that she'd been staring for over ten minutes, Charlie pulled a book out of her bag and settled in to read. She figured that this way Bass would be able to bond and spend time with Emily without feeling like he was being babysat. Which he technically wasn't, Charlie was really only there because they had limited time before they had to get back home.

XxX

He knew that Charlie was watching him but he didn't really mind. It was probably better that she didn't go trusting people with their baby right away anyway. _Their_ baby. It was still a little unreal to him. Emily was happy, healthy, and beautiful, sitting happily in his lap and babbling on and on about things he couldn't possibly understand. Her little bottom tooth was so adorable it hurt, especially after she bit him with it. He was content to just sit with her and have her in his presence, and he was grateful to Charlie for giving him that.

It was obvious that she was a little uncomfortable with the whole situation, but hell, so was he. Their weird one night thing had been a mutual moment of weakness and vulnerability that he was sure she wanted to forget. Emily making that just a little difficult of course. He however hadn't really wanted to forget it, he'd been using it as a beacon of sorts to steer himself in a better direction. One that was cleaner and less self destructive. There were no illusions about what they were though, co-parents, and nothing more. Charlie was beautiful and young, any romantic relationship between them would just be impractical. So he shoved his delusional fantasies aside and told himself to be happy with what she'd already given him. A new life and hope.

"I owe you a thank you, Charlie."

She used her finger to mark her spot on the page and looked up at him. "For what?"

He found her big blue gaze to difficult to meet so he looked at Emily instead. "For this. For Emily, for being... nice to me. I don't deserve it."

Charlie was quiet for a while and he worried that he might have said something wrong until her soft voice filled the air. "Everybody makes mistakes. But my dad always said that everyone deserves a second chance, that applies to you too."

He nodded, trying to swallow around the lump in his throat at the mention of Ben. The bell tower clanged to signal that it was noon, so he kissed Emily on the head and reluctantly passed her back to her mother. "Bye-bye, baby." She gurgled and waved at him.

"My mom and Grandpa are going out of town for house calls on Saturday."

"Uh... ok."

She hesitated. "I thought that maybe you could come to the house. You know, so I don't have to drag Emily though the woods everyday." She finshed a bit awkwardly, looking like she thought he might hate the idea.

"Yeah, of course. Uh, when do you want me to be there?"

She smiled and shifted Emily on her hip. "I was thinking around lunch. I can make some sandwiches and we could try to figure out what we're going to do about Emily in the long-term."

Bass didn't know how the hell he'd gotten so lucky, but rather than question it, he simply nodded. "Definitely, I'll be there."

"Ok," she smiled and turned, making it completely out of sight before he let out the breath he was holding. That smile made his stomach do a weird flipping thing which didn't bode well for him. He couldn't afford to get attached to her, they weren't together, and he had no right to feel that way. But he still did.

XxX

Inviting him for lunch on Saturday had been a little impulsive, but he looked so damn adorable when he got all hopeful that she couldn't help it. There was something in him that drew her in and she wondered if maybe it had been that way from the start. Had she been attracted to him back in Philadelphia? Truthfully, yes, but it had kind of been outweighed by her desire to cut down the Republic. Vegas had been different all together, the physical attraction was still there but it was outweighed by this strange emotional connection. It was almost like he could see right through her, all the way to the secrets hidden away even from herself. Vegas had been freeing in one way and binding in another. In a way, she figured that she and Bass had always been bound together - with his connection to her family - but now it was so much stronger. Emily connected them in a very specific and intimate way, and she found that it wasn't something she minded very much. Actually, she didn't mind it at all.

XxX

After finally doing some laundry and heating up a proper bath, Bass felt much better about having lunch with the girls. At least he didn't look like a homeless person anymore. He felt good about getting to see Emily again and tried to convince himself that he wasn't excited to see Charlie. But any excitement that he had been feeling faded immediately when he made his way into the Matheson backyard. Miles was sitting on a blanket in the yard playing with Emily. Bass held his breath and slowly started to back away.

"I know you're there, Bass." Miles voice held no anger though. In fact, he sounded more amused than anything else. Miles' head swiveled in his direction, his eyes looking him up and down for weapons.

"I'm unarmed."

Miles nodded. "Good. Come sit."

Bass approached the blanket cautiously, careful to keep Emily between them because he knew Miles wouldn't risk hurting her.

"Oh for fucks sake, Bass. Just sit down."

Charlie came out of the backdoor with three glasses in her hands and a scowl on her face, though Bass noticed it wasn't aimed at him. "_Grandpa_, little ears." She looked pointedly towards Emily then back at Miles.

"Right. Sorry." Though he glared at Bass as if it was his fault.

Charlie caught the glare and gave Miles one of her own. "Don't blame him, he hasn't even been here long enough to do anything." She turned to him with a smile and offered him one of the glasses she was holding, "lemonade?"

Wow, first she defended him, now he was getting lemonade, he should have come by earlier. "Thanks." He took a big gulp and sat down on the blanket. Emily immediately reached for him and tried to scoot herself his way. "Come here, cutie." He scooped her up and gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek, ignoring the grumpy look on Miles' face.

"Well I'm going to go get the food so you boys play nice." She nudged Miles with her toe and pointed at Emily, "and remember, little ears."

"Ok, ok, I've got it." He waited until Charlie disappeared back into the house to say anything. "You look better."

Not bothering to look away from the baby, Bass asked, "compared to what, when you left me for dead outside the tower or when you put a gun to my head in Philly?" He chanced a glance at his brother, finding him deep in thought.

"Both."

The bitterness ran out of him and Bass nodded in agreement. "I feel better," he said quietly.

"That's good, 'cause if I'm going to be ok with this, then you can't be that guy Bass. Not around my girls."

Bass leaned down to kiss Emily's forehead and watched her grin up at him in response. "I know."

"Good."

Charlie came back outside with a tray of of sandwiches and some cut up vegetables. "Everything alright out here?" Though it seemed more like a threat than a question.

Miles smiled up at his niece happily. "Don't worry, kid. I think we've come to an agreement. Right, Bass?"

Blowing kisses at his daughter, Bass barely glanced in their direction. "Believe it or not, we never disagreed."

Charlie seemed to take that as an acceptable answer and plopped down on the blanket, grabbing a sandwich and stuffing it into her mouth. "Good, 'cause I really didn't want to have to kick both of your asses in front of Emily."

Miles eyes narrowed in her direction. "Uh, little ears, Charlie."

She rolled her eyes but turned to poke at Emily's cheek anyway. "Mommy's sorry, baby, but you'll learn soon that sometimes you have to make exceptions where your grandpa and daddy are concerned."

Miles huffed, but Bass had completely ignored everything she'd said except for 'daddy'. It was so unfamiliar but fitting at the same time. He grinned down at Emily's smiling face. "I'm Daddy, by the way." She ba-ba somethinged at him and he couldn't help but laugh, catching Charlie's soft smile out of the corner of his eye.

* * *

A/N Thank you for reading everyone and special thanks to those of you who have used some of your precious time to review, I really do appreciate it! :-D


	5. Chapter 5

Bass was on his way back to the shack after another visit with Emily. They'd had four more since their Saturday lunch with Grandpa Miles and she seemed more and more excited to see him each time. He and Charlie had agreed to start meeting in the old park on the opposite side of town from the Matheson home because it was still within the safety of the town walls, so she wouldn't have to go far with Emily, and that part of town was less populated so it was easy for him to get in and out without people noticing. So far, he'd been using a hole in the wall in some old guy's backyard to get in and out, but as he crossed the yard, Bass was sure that was about to change.

"Excuse me!" A man in his late sixties called out to him as he made his way through the yard, careful to avoid any holes so he wouldn't fall. Bass groaned inwardly, knowing that he should have been more careful. As the old man approached, a grin formed on his face. "Ah, don't worry. I ain't mad your cuttin' through my yard."

Well that was a relief. "Great. Then what do you want?"

The older man seemed to be oblivious to Bass' less than enthusiastic attitude towards him. "My old lady seen you goin' through the yard and thought you might be one o' them clan boys," he squinted over at him, "you ain't... are you?"

Smiling, Bass shook his head. "Uh, no."

He seemed pleased enough with Bass' answer and held out a hand for him to shake. "Name's Ralph."

For a moment he was tempted to give a fake name, but then he remembered Emily. He didn't want his daughter to grow up having to lie about who her father was. "Bass."

"Well Bass, and I don't mean to be nosy, but can I ask why you keep cuttin' through my yard?"

Telling Ralph that he was sneaking around so he could avoid the mother of the mother of his child, didn't seem like a good idea, but he figured if he was going to go with the not-lying thing, then he better go all in. "I come into town so I can visit my daughter. The hole in the wall here is close to where I live, so it's easier than walking all the way around to the gate." Which was all true.

Ralph nodded understandingly, but frowned a little. "Daughter, huh? Her Momma know you're comin' to see her?"

Something about the man's easy going attitude put Bass' mind at ease, and he found himself not at all worried about telling him the truth. "Yes, she knows. Her mother's the one that brings her to see me."

"Got yourself a little girl, huh? How old is she?"

"She'll be six months old soon," the pride in his voice was unmistakable.

Ralph gave him a big smile, "that Emily's a cutie, that's for sure. Congratulations."

Bass' eyes widened in alarm. "I never said-"

"Oh, keep your panties on," he waved a hand dismissively, "there's only so many fatherless kids in town. You got the Reynolds kids, but their dad was killed a few years ago. Then you got Mary-Christina's little one, but you don't seem the type to go for a fifteen year old, and everyone knows it's the Carpenter boy's kid anyway. That just leaves Doc Porter's wandering granddaughter and her mysterious little Emily." Ralph smiled, all self satisfied and happy. "That Charlotte is quite the beauty," he gave Bass a sideways look while trying to contain a grin.

Bass frowned, finding himself oddly embarrassed under the man's gaze. "It's not like that. I... we... it's complicated."

"Ain't it always?" Ralph chuckled and leaned against a nearby tree. "So is that why you're hiding outside the wall? I'll tell you what, that Rachel Porter can be quite the force to reckon with. I remember when she was just a kid, and she was causin' trouble even back then."

"Yeah, Rachel's part of the reason."

"Only a part, what else could keep you from your kid?" Bass shifted uncomfortably, the conversation was steering in dangerous directions. If this man found out who he really was he would get run out of town for sure, or worse, arrested by the great state of Texas. "Come on, son, I don't bite. Just spit it out."

There was no way he would be able to hide forever, if he really wanted a chance to know his daughter, he would have to tell people sooner or later anyway. "I did some stuff... bad stuff that I'm not proud of. And Rachel knows about all of it. She wouldn't want me around Charlie, and when Rachel eventually finds out I'm afraid that it'll hurt Charlie and Emily even more than me. So I hide." It actually felt pretty good to say it out loud.

Ralph nodded sadly. "Well we've all done stuff we ain't proud of, but you can't live your life worryin' about every little thing you've ever done."

Bass understood what he was saying, but Ralph didn't know about everything he'd done. Would he say the same thing if he knew that he was talking to the Scourge of Scranton? He doubted it very much. "Thank you, I appreciate that. But I need to get going, I have a lot to do today still."

"Oh, you got yourself a job to get to? That's good."

He huffed a laugh. "No job. Just some traps to check and a homeless kitten to feed."

Ralph hummed low in the back of his throat, looking him up and down. "Nice build, you a good worker?"

"I guess so..."

"How are you with manual labor?"

"I was a Marine before the blackout, so I'm no stranger to hard work."

Ralph hummed approvingly. "Good. Be back here a dawn, I got some stuff I need done. I'll even pay you fair."

Taken aback by the generous offer, Bass stared at him curiously. "Why?"

The older man shrugged. "I like you. And I'm gettin' too damn old for some of the stuff that needs done around here. So are you in or what?"

"I'm supposed to meet the girls again tomorrow for lunch."

"Don't worry, I won't make you work all day long without a lunch break. You can go see your girls and then come back."

"Ok, I'll be here." They shook hands and Ralph started picking his way back towards the house. Bass wormed his way through the hole in the wall and started home, wondering how he had gotten so lucky as to choose the one backyard that belonged to the only truly decent person he'd met in a long time.

Well, other than Charlie.

XxX

The swing screeched angrily as they swung back and forth, Emily squealing as they rose and fell through the air. They were waiting in the playground for Bass. He was late, which was strange because he was almost always early for their play-dates. Charlie had tiredly suggested to Emily the other night that Daddy slept in the playground so he would always be there when they showed up. Apparently, she was wrong.

Bass finally emerged from the bushes, no more than five minutes late, with a bag slung over his shoulder. Charlie turned Emily around so she could see him and said, "look, it's Daddy!" Emily squealed and held her little arms out to him as he approached. He was moving a little slower than he usually did, his shoulders seemed slumped, and as he got closer Charlie realized that he was absolutely filthy. "What happened to you?"

He smiled grimly, dropping the bag on the ground and taking off the button up shirt he wore over his t-shirt. "I know I'm dirty, I'm sorry, I was working."

"Working?"

He nodded, wiping most of the dirt off of his face with the discarded shirt and then snatched Emily off of her lap, swinging her through the air and making her giggle. "Yeah, I met this old guy, he said he'd pay me to help him out around the house and stuff."

"Oh, that's good." But he wasn't really paying attention. His focus was all on Emily while she picked at flecks of dirt in his hair. Charlie didn't mind, as much as she actually liked talking to Bass, these visits weren't about her. She was glad he'd found some way to make money though, she and Miles had discussed the fact that he was basically living off of nothing and were both a bit concerned. Her eyes fell to the bag he'd left on the ground, she wanted to ask what it was for, but she also didn't want to pry. They'd talked about the house he'd moved into a few times, but he hadn't seemed to eager to discuss it so she'd been trying to give him his space. As difficult as that may be for her.

She hadn't realized she'd been staring at the bag for so long until Bass broke her out of her thoughts. "It's my lunch." She looked up at him confusedly. "This is technically my lunch break, and the guy's wife took it upon herself to pack it for me. She looked so excited, so I couldn't tell her no."

Charlie smiled. "Look at that, you made friends."

He rolled his eyes and sat down on the ground next to her swing, situating Emily between his legs and pulling the bag towards him. There was an apple, a hunk of fresh bread, some cheese, and a canteen full of water. He gulped down half of the water at once, Charlie watching his Adam's apple bob up and down with each swallow. At this proximity, she could see the dirt from a mornings worth of work crusted into the little wrinkles around his eyes and had to mentally smack herself as a reminder that that sort of thinking wouldn't get her anywhere.

Bass picked up the apple and held it out to her. "Are you hungry?"

"Oh, no you eat. We just had lunch." They really had, but even if they hadn't she wouldn't have taken the food. She had a sneaking suspicion that he hadn't had anything decent to eat since lunch with Miles last Saturday.

He shrugged and bit into the apple, Emily reaching up to try and take it from him. He let her pull it down to her level and they both watched her attempt to take a bite out of it. Unfortunately, only having one tooth made eating apples pretty much impossible though, which - of course - made her angry. Bass chuckled at her while she slapped the offending fruit with a chubby hand as if that would make it easier to eat. She then proceeded to gnaw around the part where he'd already taken a bite, succeeding in covering it with drool. Charlie scrunched up her nose in distaste, but he merely shrugged and took another bite before letting Emily go back to drooling on his food.

"I'm her mother, and even I think that's gross."

Bass shook his head with a smile. "Well, her spit is partly my spit, just with some of yours mixed in it, and since we swapped spit when we made her, I figure I've had it before anyway."

Charlie blinked at him. "That's a weird way to think about it."

He grinned, his blue eyes twinkling in the sunlight. "But it's true."

"Yeah. I guess it is." They both laughed and watched their daughter move on to play with the laces on his boots, Charlie ignoring the fluttering in her stomach every time their eyes met.

XxX

With a bag full of vegetables over her shoulder and Emily on her hip, Charlie entered the house after another play-date with Bass. She'd started picking up things in town that they needed so that her trip out of the house wouldn't seem so unnecessary. But as she closed the door with her foot, shouting coming from the direction of the living room made her stomach churn. She didn't know what her mother was angry about this time, but she had a feeling it wasn't good.

"Rachel, just calm down-" Miles pleaded.

"Calm down? Oh my God... you already knew." Miles didn't answer, but his silence said plenty. "How could you lie to me? How long have known?"

Charlie stood silently in the hallway to listen. "Not long, Bass only came into town a couple of weeks ago."

"Weeks?" Rachel's voice was no more than a squeak. "He's been here for weeks, and he's still alive? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Miles sighed. "Charlie said-"

"I don't give a damn what Charlie said. I will not let that monster corrupt my granddaughter."

"Rachel, Charlie's an adult. She can make her own decisions."

Judging by the footsteps coming from the kitchen, her mother was most likely pacing. "Clearly she can't Miles. If she had any sense she'd have shot him herself instead of falling for his little act and letting him have his way with her." The venom in Rachel's voice cut straight through her. Her own mother thought she was nothing but a stupid whore. Tears burned in her eyes, but she swiped them away and continued to listen. "I want him gone. He will not have anything to do with Emily, and that's final."

Anger burned in Charlie's chest. Who the hell did she think she was? Rachel hadn't even stuck around for her own children and now she was trying to control Emily too?

No. No fucking way. Emily was her daughter, and she would decide what was best for her. She hiked the bag of vegetables up higher onto her shoulder and turned back down the hallway, stepping out onto the porch and purposefully slamming the front door behind her. She vaguely registered her mom and Miles calling her name, but ignored them as she stomped down the street. Miles was right, she was an adult and she was sure as hell going to make her own decisions.

* * *

A/N Hmm... can anyone guess where she's going? :-D Thank you so much for reading everybody! Leave me a review if you've got a sec!


	6. Chapter 6

After their play-date for lunch, Bass had gone back to Ralph's and done some work around the house for him. His wife Opal had been so excited when he fixed the squeaky storm door that she'd run inside and put together a little care package for him. Not taking no for an answer, she'd made him take a nice wicker basket that was filled to the brim with various canned fruits and vegetables, a fresh loaf bread, and a bar of her own homemade soap. She'd apologized that it was lilac scented, but Bass shrugged it off, telling her that it was better than not having any at all.

As he unloaded the basket and started filling his kitchen cabinets, he couldn't help but smile. Maybe he wasn't a homemaker expert, but he didn't think that he was doing too bad. There was still a lot of work that needed to be done though. The bathtub needed to be properly scrubbed out, the backdoor needed to be hung back on it's hinges, and the front window that was busted out needed to be boarded up. And that was just the beginning.

He was carrying an old piece of wood around to the front of the house so he could fix the window when Charlie came down the overgrown driveway with Emily in her arms. There were faint red rings around her eyes, she'd obviously been crying, the grim set of her jaw telling him that whatever was wrong - was bad. Bass thought back to earlier during lunch, trying to figure out if he'd done something that might have upset her but couldn't think of anything. "Hey." He gave her tentative smile that she didn't return, but since she hadn't thrown anything or pulled a weapon he figured he must be in the clear. "What happened?" He asked when she stopped in front of him, noting that Emily was fast asleep on her shoulder.

"Mom knows," she said simply. "I don't know how she found out, but she made it very clear that my 'stupidity' isn't welcome." She sucked in a shaky breath and her voice dropped so low that he had to step closer in order to hear. "So I left, and... I don't really have anywhere else to go." Her blue eyes looked up at him and he could see the question in them, the possibly fear that he would turn them away.

In an attempt to lighten the mood a little and to reassure her, because they were more than welcome in his home, Bass swept his arms around in a dramatic gesture. "_Mi casa es su casa_, or whatever it is. I'd offer you the guest bedroom, but it's currently under renovation."

She rasied her eyebrows at him, cracking a small smile. "Renovation, huh?"

"In other words - it hasn't been built yet." She stifled a laugh behind her hand so as to not wake the baby. "You guys can take the bedroom and I'll... sleep on the floor." Because, duh, he didn't even have a freaking couch.

Charlie frowned up at him, shifting Emily's weight uncomfortably and making him realize that she must have been carrying her for a while in order to track him down. He dropped the wood and the hammer unceremoniously to the ground and gently took Emily from her mother, watching her little face frown at being moved but go right back to being lost to sleep. "I can sleep on the floor, Bass-"

He looked down at her sharply. "You _can_, but you won't. Not in my house."

A small smiled formed on her lips as she nodded her head in agreement. There was something different in her eyes though. It wasn't just acceptance, though there was that, but something more akin to respect.

XxX

Charlie knew it was silly to think that Bass might turn them away. From the moment he'd reappeared in her and Emily's lives he'd been nothing short of helpful and caring, loving even. Though that was directed at Emily. He'd been polite and respectful to her.

As he led them into the tiny, rundown house, she realized why Bass had been avoiding the subject of where he lived. He was embarrassed. There wasn't a single piece of furniture in the small living room and the old bed that was visible through the open door was nothing to boast about. She wasn't turning her nose up at it or anything like that, she'd stayed in her fair share of shit holes while wandering around The Plains, she just understood now that he hadn't been shutting her out because he didn't want her to be there.

She laid Emily's diaper bag and the bag of vegetables on the grimy kitchen counter, her eyes surveying the room carefully. "I know it's not nice to look at..." Bass began awkwardly, but she shook her head and smiled.

"It's alright, I know you're working on it. And I really appreciate you letting us stay here on such short notice. We shouldn't be here long, I just need a few days to sort myself out."

A hint of disappointment swept across his face, but was quickly replaced with a warm smile. "Take your time. There's no need to rush, you guys are more than welcome here."

The afternoon sun was starting to set, the oncoming winter shortening the days, and Emily started to fuss. Charlie took her into the bedroom to nurse while Bass moved around in the kitchen. He came into the room a little while later holding a wicker basket that was lined with what looked like some of his clothes and one of her blankets from the diaper bag. "No crib," he explained with a shrug.

She smiled and nodded, directing him to set it on the floor next to the bed. After she'd gotten the baby situated, Bass crouched down next to the basket and kissed her head, whispering something to her sleep filled ears. Charlie bit back a smile as she watched him, leaving him to say goodnight to their daughter without an audience.

In the kitchen, Charlie found a loaf of bread, homemade jam, and some fruit on the counter. Bass came out of the bedroom, quietly shutting the door behind him so he wouldn't wake the baby. "Sorry, I don't have a lot of food in the house, so..."

He looked sad and awkward, and embarrassed. Charlie immediately decided that she hated that look on him and was determined to see it as little as possible for the remainder of their co-parenting lives. "Don't apologize. I know that this hasn't been easy for you. One day you're a drunk with nothing to live for, and the next you've got a kid to take care of."

"You don't seem to have any problem with it," he said quietly. Charlie wondered if she was imagining the envy in his voice.

"No, but I had years of practice with Danny, and I had nine months to mentally prepare myself. You went from drunk to Dad in half a second," she told him gently. "It's ok for you to struggle. That's normal. Well," she corrected, "about as normal as this situation can get."

Bass looked at her then, with his head tilted to the side and his eyes filled with admiration. "You are an amazing woman, Charlie." She felt her cheeks burning and ducked her head to try and hide behind her hair, wondering why she was so shy all of a sudden. She mumbled a thank you and they ate together quietly, standing next to the kitchen counter and sharing small smiles as they did.

When they'd had their fill Bass moved to the bedroom, pulling a blanket off of the bed and spreading it out on the living room floor. Charlie looked down at his pitiful bed guiltily, but he caught it and shook his head. "The floor isn't that bad. Actually, after that lumpy mattress, sleeping on the floor might do my back some good. Trust me, by stealing my bed, you're actually doing me a favor." He gave her a crooked grin and she smiled back before heading into the bedroom.

She'd fled her grandfather's house with only Emily's little diaper bag, so she was really grateful when she saw one of Bass' t-shirts laid out on the bed for her. As she slipped it over her head, Charlie tried to ignore his lingering scent on it - like trees, fresh air, and whiskey. It usually took a while for her to calm down and fall asleep, but something about his presence in the other room calmed her down and lulled her quickly to sleep.

XxX

Sleep had been difficult for him even before the blackout. Nightmares about cars squashed like pancakes with blood and guts oozing out of the sides, or gunfire in forsaken deserts. Then after the blackout it was bodies laying piled high in the streets, people's throats slit over a can of beans. After Shelly, they'd been blood covered hands and a faceless, lifeless, newborn baby.

Tonight was no different. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Emily's tiny body laying haphazardly in the road surrounded by a puddle of blood, or sometimes it was Charlie laying crumpled in a ditch. Bass finally gave up after a particularly bad one where Rachel had shot Charlie right in the heart and taken off with their baby. That one had made him get up and silently open the bedroom door, finding Charlie snuggled safely in his bedroll and Emily wrapped carefully in her basket. He stood there for a while, transfixed by the rise and fall of his daughter's chest, her tiny pink lips puckered into a slight frown. He couldn't bring himself to walk away, deciding instead to sit next to the bed with his back propped against the side so he could watch her. Keep her safe. He must have drifted off at some point, waking up to the sensation of gentle fingers combing through his hair, his head pillowed on the side of the bed.

Charlie's sleepy eyes blinked open when he lifted his head, she smiled at him and scooted back towards the wall, tugging on his hair and leaving him no choice but to climb in beside her. They were close enough that he could feel her warm breath on his face, her fingers still running through his hair. He fell asleep with her flowery scent in his nose and a smile on his face, unbothered by his usual nightly demons.

* * *

A/N It's a bit short, but I've been in a rare good mood today and didn't feel like messing it up by writing Charlie fights with Rachel. I guess we'll wait for the next one for that unpleasantness. :-D Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

Morning dawned bright and early, and Bass was woken by the rustle of blankets and tiny whimpers as Emily started to fuss. He didn't want to move from the comfortable position he was in. Charlie was turned on her side and facing him, her head tucked under his chin, one hand tangled in the front of his shirt and the other still wrapped around his neck, her fingertips tickling the hairs on the back on his neck. She was breathing deeply, still lost in her dreams. Emily cried out a little louder, making him abandon his comfy bed so he could scoop her into his arms.

Emily stilled instantly, her cries subsiding as she pillowed her little head against his chest. She clearly just wanted to be held and Bass wasn't about to turn that away. It had been a long time since anyone had showed him such open affection, even if it was from a baby that didn't know any better, he was going to take what he could get.

They wandered into the kitchen and Bass munched on some more bread and jam, letting Emily suck some of the surgery jelly off of his finger. He wasn't sure whether or not Charlie would care but he figured if Emily didn't tell, it could be her and Daddy's little secret. And since she couldn't really talk, he figured they were safe.

It took him a while to figure out that the disturbing smell in the room was coming from his daughter's diaper. Who'd have thought that a stench like that could come from anyone other that Miles Matheson?

Cloth diapers. He missed the pre-blackout days with their disposable ones and special little trash cans. It took them a while, with Emily fussing and Bass trying to figure out where he was supposed to put the pins, but they eventually got her clean and changed into a fresh set of clothes from the diaper bag. Considering that was his first ever post-blackout diaper change, he thought he'd done petty well.

With the dirty diaper outside soaking in a bucket, Bass brought the basket out of the bedroom and sat Emily in it so he could get a fire going on the stove. She was clapping and babbling, pointing at this and that. Eventually Bass gave up trying to focus on the fire and instead sat on the floor in front of the basket to play peek-a-boo. She squealed and giggled every time, scaring the poor little kitten into hiding in the cupboard under the sink. Bass had worried a few times that they might wake Mommy, but he could see the end of the bed through the cracked bedroom door from where they sat on the floor, Charlie's bare feet were sticking out of the blanket and she never once moved. He wondered if she was just worn out from the day before, but then it occurred to him that she'd been playing the role of single Mom to an infant for the past six months. She was probably exhausted.

An hour or so after the sun came up, Bass was getting ready to wake Charlie when he thought he heard something moving around outside. Sharp knocks on the door immediately sent him running for his gun, Emily craddled carefully against his chest in an effort to protect her tiny body. He was three feet from the bedroom door when he heard a voice call out, "relax, Bass. It's me."

Sighing with relief, Bass moved to open the door and let Miles in. As it swung open, he was met by not only Miles, but Rachel too. Her face was scrunched up in anger, her eyes alight with fury. "How dare you take my daughter away from me! I..."

But her continued rant was drowned out by Miles trying to hold her back from attacking Bass. Rachel managed to push her way into the house by pushing Miles in front of her. As they came through the door Miles muttered, "sorry. I kept her away as long as I could." Bass nodded. He understood, there was only so much you could do to hold Rachel back when she put her mind to something.

Rachel rounded on him instantly, Miles still between them and Emily still in Bass' arms. "I can not believe you. Are really so pathetic that you had to stoop to stealing other people's children just so you wouldn't be lonely?" She kept trying to push around Miles to get to him, but his brother held her back. When Rachel finally realized that this was as close as she was going to get, she started laying it on thick. "You are such a man whore. Taking advantage of a young girl, purposefully getting her pregnant-"

"Enough." All three of them turned to find Charlie awake and staring at all of them. She was still only wearing his shirt that she'd slept in and her hair was a tangled mess, but her eyes were burning with anger.

"Sweetheart," Rachel started, her voice sickly sweet.

Charlie glared at her mother. "I said that's enough," she growled. "Now I want you to listen, really listen Rachel, because I'm only going to say this once. Bass is Emily's father. No it wasn't planned and it wasn't forced either." She stepped closer, watching Rachel's unreadable expression intently. "You have a choice. Shut up and live with it, or get the fuck out."

Rachel's mouth dropped open in shock. "You can't talk to me like that, I'm your mother."

Charlie simply rolled her eyes at that, shaking her head. "I'm an adult, Rachel. I can do what I want and you can't stop me."

The older woman's face turned back to anger and she jumped in Bass' direction, attempting to take Emily away from him. "No, I won't let you do this. You can't take her away from me!" Her eyes were wide, making her look wild and dangerous. Bass was trying to break away from Rachel without hurting Emily, before Miles could even attempt to intervene, Charlie had grabbed her shoulders and yanked her back so hard that it threw her off her feet, making her land flat on her butt.

She turned to Bass. "Get Emily out of here, she doesn't need to be around this." He nodded and left without even questioning her. She was right anyway. Charlie in momma bear mode was not something Emily needed to see. He hurried them out of the still-hanging-off-it's-hinges back door and settled them under a tree in the backyard. They were far enough away that if Rachel came out running he'd have a decent head start, but close enough that if Charlie needed him he'd still be around to help. Voices, indistinct but angry, could be heard from where they were sitting so he tried to distract Emily with another round of peek-a-boo.

XxX

The moment the door shut behind Bass, Charlie rounded on her mother. "Will you wake up! I am not the little girl you left behind anymore, and Emily is not a replacement for you to try and make up for skipping out on me. She's my daughter and I'm trying to do what's best for her."

Rachel staggered to her feet breathing heavily. "Do you really think that having that monster anywhere near her is good for her? You can't possibly be that stupid."

"She's his daughter, too! And if you really think that Bass would hurt an innocent child than you're the stupid one. I've seen the way he is with her, she means everything to him. There's no doubt in my mind that he would do whatever it takes to protect her, unlike you, who left your kids stranded with a man who couldn't tell the difference between a nut and an acorn."

Rachel shook her head condescendingly. "You have no idea-"

"Get out." Charlie cut her off flatly.

"Excuse me?"

"Just get out," she said tiredly.

"Charlie-"

"I said get out," she shouted.

Rachel sucked in an angry breath, releasing the words all at once. "I slept with him."

Charlie's eyebrows rose, the confusion evident on her face. "With who?"

"Bass, of course." Rachel gave her a triumphant smirk, like that was the end of the argument.

Something sick and slimy slid into her stomach making Charlie want to run outside and vomit, but she held it together. "So? Who cares?" Her lack of reaction left Rachel completely baffeled. "I said get out. Now go." Charlie pointed at the door and with one last look of contempt, Rachel ran off into the woods.

She could feel Miles right behind her, a similar sense of confusion coming from his direction. "Do you think she's lying?" Charlie asked him without turning to see his face.

It took a moment, but Miles eventually sighed. "No. They did." Charlie turned to look at him. Miles didn't appear angry or hurt, maybe just a little sad. He caught her looking and shrugged. "I always kinda figured." She nodded, not so much in agreement, just acceptance. It happened. She'd get the story from Bass later.

Or maybe she didn't need it. Or want it.

No. What she wanted was to check on Emily.

They went out through the back door, finding Bass and Emily playing with rocks under a tree. He looked up at their approach, radiating nervousness. "That was quick."

Charlie found that it was a little difficult to look at him so she picked up Emily and cleaned some imaginary dirt off of her face instead. "Yeah, well, she's gone. And I doubt she'll be back, so... I'm just going to go feed Emily." She fled back into the house, glad to get away from Bass and his searching gaze.

XxX

Bass jumped up from his spot on the ground as Charlie all but ran away from him. He looked at Miles, worry filling his gut. "What did I do, what's wrong?"

Miles seemed torn between anger and something close to pity. "Nothing. Well, not recently." At Bass' questioning look he elaborated, "Rachel told her about... you know... you two."

Bass stared at him for a moment, still confused as to what he was talking about but it became clearer as the memories of a long forgotten night floated through his mind. He cringed a little at the memory and turned to his best friend. "Miles, you have to know that I never-"

Miles held up a hand to stop him. "Was I still in Philly?" He asked quietly.

"No. It was after."

"Then it doesn't matter." Miles pulled the bag he was holding off of his shoulder and handed it to him.

"What is this?" Bass peeked inside, finding lots of tiny cloths and some more cloth diapers.

"It's as much of the girls stuff that I could fit. Here," he reached into his jacket pocket and handed him a small jar.

"What's this?" Bass took the lid off and sniffed it.

"Butt paste." Bass froze, making Miles laugh. "For Emily, you moron. It's for her diaper rash." He pulled a leather pouch from one of his other pockets. "Tea leaves for Charlie. She gets nightmares, bad ones, at least twice a week. The tea helps calm her down and get her back to sleep. And there's this," Miles pulled out a nice looking bottle of whiskey.

"What's that for, to spike the tea?"

Miles shook his head and shoved the bottle into his hands. "Nope, it's for you dickhead."

"Oh, thanks..." Bass gave him and uncertain look.

"Don't drink it now. Put it up, out of sight, and save it."

"For what?"

"For when you realize that taking care of a woman and a child is a lot of work, responsibility that you're not ready for. It's for that moment when you think it's too much for you and you want the easy way out. And when that happens, and I know you so I know it will, you wait for the girls to go to bed, drink the whole bottle, and let yourself wallow for one night. Just. One. Night. Then you get your ass up in the morning and take care of my girls, because I swear to God, if anything happens to either of them I will hunt you down and put a bullet in your head. Understood?"

Bass nodded his head and shoved the bottle into the bag of clothes, feeling like this was the part where any reservations he may have had were tossed out of the window. "One night. Got it."

Miles gave him a wry smile and set a hand on his shoulder. "Then congratulations, Bass. I'm happy for you." He felt tears pooling in his eyes and wiped them away quickly, making Miles groan. "Oh, come on, don't start with that shit. Just-just go bond with your kid or whatever." Miles stomped away from him towards the front yard, Bass could have sworn he heard him grumbling about over emotional people on his way.

He cleared his throat and wiped away those silly tears. It wasn't too much for him to handle. He could do this. He'd run the Monroe Republic for years, how hard could taking care of two people really be?

* * *

A/N I know everybody wanted Charlie to punch her, I did too, but I feel like Charlie's not really angry with Rachel at this point in her life, she's just sad and dissapointed. Anyway, thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

Realistically, Charlie knew that she couldn't blame Bass for something that had happened years ago, but that didn't help the icky feeling she got everytime she pictured her mom and Bass in the same room. It wasn't jealousy or anything, it wasn't like she and Bass were together. Regardless of their current living arrangements, Bass was his own man, he didn't owe her anything.

That still didn't help her queasy stomach.

She had shut the bedroom door when she came in in order to give herself some space, but as Bass' booted footsteps crossed through the house on the other side of the door she felt guilty for locking him out of his own room. Cabinet doors were opening and closing, more footsteps, more doors. By the time Emily had finished nursing, there were soft knocks on the door.

"Charlie, can I come in?"

Yanking her shirt back down, she called back, "yeah, it's ok."

Bass came in quietly, looking unsure. "Listen, the thing with your-"

"No, don't," she stopped him. Now that he wanted to say it, she was sure she wanted to hear it. "Look, it's... that's none of my business."

He hesitated for a moment. "I know, but-"

Charlie squeezed her eyes shut as if that could keep her ears from hearing him. "Bass, stop. Just stop." Taking a calming breath, she laid Emily down on the bed and stood in front of him. "I appreciate everything you've done the past few weeks, but you don't owe me anything."

His blue eyes looked sad and dissapointed. He scratched his head awkwardly and cleared his throat. "I told Ralph I'd be by to help him today, so... I'll see you later." Though the way he said it made it sound like more of a question.

"Yeah, we'll be here," she assured him.

Bass smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners and his teeth gleaming. "Ok, I'll get some food while I'm in town." Charlie thanked him and waited until he'd left the house before she plopped back down on the bed to think.

XxX

He hadn't actually told Ralph that he would help him today, but the closed off look in Charlie's eyes had clued him in that she needed some space. Which was completely her right. Regardless of how he'd woken up this morning, they weren't together, and he'd warned himself on multiple occasions not to get to attached to her. Emily was his daughter so he had every right to her, but Charlie wasn't his wife. No matter how pretty of a picture that made in his head.

On his way out of the house, he'd grabbed what little money he'd managed to save up so far and now he understood a little more about what Miles had meant. How was such a small amount of money supposed to support three people? Sure Emily mostly just nursed still, but in order for her to eat that meant that Charlie had to eat, and in order for Charlie to eat he needed to have money to buy food, but he had to eat to keep up his engery so he could make money. Either way you looked at it he was screwed.

After reaching Ralph's house he'd been discouraged to find that the man wasn't even home. According to his wife Opal, he'd gone out for the town board meeting. Something in his face must have given away his bad day though because she'd made him a deal, clean out the chicken coop and collect the eggs, and she would let him keep a dozen to take home.

Now normally he wasn't one to accept handouts, but given the fact that how was now supporting two other people, he took the deal.

It was dull work. Put shovel in chicken shit. Scoop. Throw outside. Repeat. It gave his brain something to focus on other than the fact that when he finally did return home, it was possible that he'd find it empty. Scoop. Shovel. Repeat.

"What's the matter, huh?" Opal asked, handing him a glass of apple cider.

"Oh, it's-it's nothing."

One of her silvery eyebrows shot up and she grinned. "Mhmm. This about your lady friend, the Doc's granddaughter?"

How was it that old people always just seemed to know what was going on? Maybe his mother had been right, age equals wisdom.

"Yeah... she's not very happy with me at the moment." He shoveled another clump and tossed it in the pile, trying to keep away from Opal's knowing smile.

"Another woman? I didn't peg you for the cheating type."

"I'm not," he answered. "It was a long time ago."

"So what's that got to do with now?"

Bass sighed tiredly. He knew that Opal would never understand unless he told her the truth, and since she was being so nice to him he kind of felt like he owed her. "It was her mother."

Opal's eyes widened a fraction, but went quickly back to normal. "That's... tough."

He stopped shoveling and flopped down onto the steps of the hen house. "I know, but it wasn't even... Rachel and I aren't..."

"You love her."

Bass stared at Opal's small smile in shock. "Rachel? No way, we can't even-"

"No, no, no." Opal waved off his excuses. "The girl, what's her name-"

"Charlie."

"Yep, that's the one." She tilted her head, studying his face. "You love her, don't you?"

Bass tried to think about it. Did he love Charlie? Sure she was smart and beautiful. Forgiving to the point of unbelievable, too. Which was definitely something he admired. She was strong and brave, but loving and kind. Yeah, it seemed like loving Charlie was pretty obvious when he thought about it like that.

Opal smiled as if she could read his mind. "And how does she feel about you?"

That was more complicated. This morning it had seemed like there might be something between them, but after hurricane Rachel had her say things didn't look so good for him.

Opal frowned, looking thoughtful. "Just give her some time, sweety." She patted his cheek affectionately. "Let her figure it out on her own."

Before he left, Opal made him take a few quilts that she'd found in the attic with him. He'd tried to turn them down, but it turned out that the old lady was about as stubborn as a Matheson. He entertained the thought that the families might be distantly related while he made his way towards the market.

XxX

Charlie could only wallow in her own self pity for so long. Emily and her stomach demanded her attention. Finding the bag of clothes on the kitchen counter as well Emily's rash cream had brightened up her day a bit, the toothy little smile on her daughter's face took care of the rest. She was a mother now, she couldn't afford to be selfish, she couldn't afford to be like Rachel. Though she was pleased to find that the other woman's name had finally stopped making her stomach churn.

She shoved down the last of the bread, fed Emily again, and put her down for a nap. The rest of the morning and most of the afternoon was spent cleaning up around the house. She scrubbed out the bathtub and put some water on the stove to heat, gathered up the small amount of clothes that Bass owned, washed them, and hung them out back. She'd been surprised by the fluffy kitten she'd found under the sink, having not pictured Bass as a cat person, but fed him some fruit from her lunch.

After a quick bath she felt much better. Yes, Bass slept with Rachel but they obviously couldn't stand each other now, so whatever they had going on was clearly over. Which meant that it didn't matter. Now whatever was going on between her and Bass... that was a different story.

Did she want a relationship with him? Ideally that's how the whole 'family' thing worked, but she wasn't sure how he would feel about that. Sure he loved Emily, anybody with eyes could see that, but Charlie was pretty sure that Bass' tolerance for her was mostly due to their shared interest in the baby. Nothing more.

Maybe someday he could see her as more than that.

XxX

Man, meat was so expensive. Was it always like this or was he only just now noticing? The guy at the butcher shop didn't seem to like him very much either, and he was sure that that wasn't helping things. But a savior in the form of a fat guy with a beard came to his rescue.

"Hey, how's Charlie?" Emily's godfather, otherwise known as Aaron Pittman, stood next to him at the counter.

"Uh... good." Bass gave him a strange look. He hadn't ever talked to the fat guy, so he had no idea why he was acting like they were buddies.

"Good. How's my little Emily?" Aaron's eyes flicked in the direction of the unfriendly butcher. Bass followed his gaze, finding the man watching them with rapt attention.

Choosing not to question why Aaron was helping him, Bass gave him a big smile. "She's great. It's an adjustment for her, but she's handling it well."

Their partially staged conversation was cut short by the nosy butcher. "Charlie and Emily Matheson?" He asked. At Bass' nod, he frowned. "What are they doing with you?"

Aaron answered before he even had the chance. "Oh they just moved in with him. Charlie wanted Emily to be closer to her father."

"Oh." The butcher's previously mean disposition disappeared and was replaced with a smile. "That Charlie's a great hunter. I wish she hadn't gone and had a baby so I could get some more of that good meat."

Bass gave the man his best charming grin. "Yeah, well Emily's still little so we have to make due with what other people bring in. But I'll let her know you're waiting on her."

He smiled and slapped a hunk of wrapped meat on the counter, giving Bass the best price he'd heard since he walked through the door. Aaron got what he needed and the two of them were on their way out of the shop, an awkward silence hanging between them.

"So... thanks. For helping me in there," Bass said awkwardly.

"No problem." Aaron shifted around uncomfortably. "Miles said that you might have some trouble, asked me to try and help you out."

The fact that Miles was still trying to help him made Bass' heart soar. "I appreciate it."

"Well, it's for the girls."

And that was all it took. Their mutual love for the youngest Matheson women made them instant friends.

"I guess after Rachel got back she went batshit crazy and tried to destroy all of Charlie's stuff," Aaron told him. "Most of it's done for, but Miles managed to salvage a few things and brought them over to my place for safe keeping. If you want, you could come get some of it to take back for her."

The trip to Aaron's house was quiet but not unpleasant. Bass was surprised to find a pretty woman in his kitchen making apple pies. "Oh, you must be Bass." She smiled good naturedly. "I'd shake your hand but..." she held up her dough covered hands with a giggle.

"Don't worry about it. It's nice to meet you-"

"Cynthia," Aaron finished for him.

His little sister's name burned in the back of his skull, but he forced himself to smile through it. He picked up Charlie's crossbow and the pack stuffed with odds and ends, promising to get the rest of the stuff at a later date. Cynthia added a sack full of carrots, onions, potatoes, and beans to his load. He'd tried to refuse but something about her sweet smile made him take it. Maybe it was just the memory of his dead sister making him think it, but the woman seemed like a gentle hearted person.

Tired, dirty, and laden with packages, Bass finally made his way home.

XxX

It was bath time and Emily wasn't cooperating. Every time Charlie got near her with the washcloth the little girl threw a fit. She blamed it on Miles. Miles and that stupid rubber duck that he insisted Emily needed to play with during bath time. The duck had been left behind with the majority of the rest of their stuff and her daughter was not happy about it. Frustrated and soaked through with Emily's would-be bath water, she hadn't noticed Bass coming through the front door. He finally caught her attention when he laid several bags and packages down on the kitchen counter.

"Where did all of that stuff come from?" There seemed to be an awful lot of stuff there and she knew he didn't have the money for all that.

Bass seemed to catch her train of thought and looked a little hurt. "I didn't steal it, if that's what you're thinking."

She tried to backtrack, "no, I didn't-"

"Relax Charlie, I was kidding." He grinned at her and she rolled her eyes, slapping him with a wet hand. "Actually most of it's yours. I guess Miles gave it to your buddy Aaron to keep it safe from your mom." Charlie nodded, her mind really on her pack that was now on the counter, wondering if Emily's ducky might be in there while Bass' mind was clearly on the splashing baby in the kitchen sink.

Bass easily took her place at the sink, attempting to wash the white blonde hair on Emily's head but only getting screeching in response. Charlie chuckled as she dug through the pack. Emily's rag doll, old journal, extra diaper pins, sharpening stone, some underwear, and... yes! The ducky! She turned around to find an angry, slippery, Emily trying to claw her way out of the sink and a confused Bass trying not to lose his grip on her tiny limbs. Biting her lip to keep from laughing, Charlie squeezed the ancient rubber duck in her hand, the squeak it made immediately catching her daughter's attention.

Emily stopped fidgeting and let Bass set her back in the water before reaching for the ducky. The moment it was in her little hand the poor thing's head was in her mouth. She chewed happily on the old toy while Charlie showed Bass the best strategy for baths. He was a quick learner and as usual, Emily seemed content to let Daddy do the work. She also showed him the best way to fasten the cloth diapers into place, having noticed his poor job from this morning.

He actually blushed when she mentioned it, turning his tanned skin an adorable pink. "Sorry about that, I don't really have much experience with this sort of thing."

She waved him off with a comforting smile. "Don't worry about it, I didn't either when she was born. It's taken me a while to get this good."

Charlie had put on some water for a bath for Bass before he got home, so while he was getting cleaned up she went through all of the stuff he'd brought back. Nice thick quilts, some fresh venison from the butcher's, vegetables and beans from Aaron, and her crossbow - which meant that she would be able to help out by getting them meat so they wouldn't have to buy it. With that in mind, Charlie went ahead and used the meat he'd bought to make some stew. They ate quietly, Emily eating some of the stewed carrots from Bass' bowl.

After dinner, Charlie watched Bass line Emily's basket with one of the quilts. Then he took his bedroll off of the mattress and covered the musty thing with a quilt, leaving another one to use as a blanket. Out in the living room, he laid out his bedroll and left the last quilt folded up beside it for, presumably, for himself to use.

Charlie bit her lip thoughtfully. They had shared the bed just fine last night so there was no reason for him to sleep on the floor. Unless he wanted to, but she pushed that thought away. "You don't have to sleep out here, you know." The look on his face was a cross somewhere between pleasantly surprised and too good to be true.

"It's a small bed and we have more blankets now, so it's not a big deal," he said.

Charlie nodded her head in agreement, hoping that he couldn't see the disappointment on her face. She headed for the bedroom, brushing past him on the way. "Well if you change your mind..."

His fingers brushed the inside of her arm making her shiver, his eyes catching her off guard with their sincerity. "Look... today was a lot to take in. For everyone. I just don't think we need to," he hesitated for the right words, "rush into anything."

Charlie's heart thumped happily in her chest and she had to fight down the impossible grin forming on her lips. "Ok."

* * *

A/N Obviously this is supposed to be Charloe, but I'm honestly having more fun making Emily do adorable things and trying to figure out how Bass and Charlie would react. Hope you guys don't mind! :-D


	9. Chapter 9

Screaming filled the air around him making his head feel like it was going to explode. Emily's wailing had been going on for the better part of an hour. Bass had checked all the usual suspects but her diaper was clean, she didn't want food, and the rock-n-bounce thing he'd seen Charlie do was only making things worse. He stepped outside with the hopes that some fresh air might calm his daughter down but she only cried harder, beating her little fists against his chest.

"I'm sorry, baby, I don't know what you want." He tried rocking her back and forth but she started screaming so hard that her little face was turning red. Completely at his wits end, Bass pleaded with her, "it's ok, it's ok, Mommy will be back soon and then she'll make it better. I promise."

The sight of Miles coming down the overgrown driveway in a wagon had never been so welcome.

"Jesus, Bass. What the hell did you do to her?"

All dignity forgotten, Bass looked at his brother with wide, terrified eyes. "I think something's wrong with her, she won't stop crying, and no matter what I do it just gets worse," he explained desperately.

Miles easily scooped the screaming infant from his arms and held her up high, her cries subsiding just a fraction. "What's wrong booger, huh?" He crooned. Emily continued to cry so Bass followed Miles back into the house and watched his friend hunt through Charlie's pack that was sitting on the counter. "Ah, here we go," he said happily, handing Emily the rag doll. She stilled, wrapping her chubby fingers around the doll, her little shoulders still shaking with the effort of crying. "See? All better." Miles kissed her cheek sloppily, making her giggle.

"Ga-ya," she shouted up at him.

Miles grinned down at her. "That's right,_ Gr-and-pa_."

She shook the doll in his face and attempted to mimic him. "Gaa-yaa."

Miles chuckled and sent Bass a shrug. "Close enough."

Bass stared at him wide eyed, torn between feeling like an idiot for not figuring out that she just wanted her doll and being thankful that she'd finally stopped screaming. "How did you..." he asked weakly.

Rolling his eyes, Miles deposited a happy Emily in her father's arms. "I was Grandpa way before you were Daddy. I know what I'm doing."

He got over his shock quickly, following Miles back out of the house. "What's with the wagon, Grandpa too tired to walk?"

Miles shot him a glare, climbing into the back of the wagon. "No, you dick. Leanne's in labor, so Gene and Rachel are gonna be out of town for the next day or two, so I figured I'd bring what was left of the girls' stuff over before they get back." He lifted an old highchair up and set it on the ground next to the wagon, the tray for food was cracked along one side, but other than that it seemed to have come out of Rachel's tornado with minimal damage.

There were a few other things, like the tiny mattress from Emily's bassinet - thought the thing itself had been destroyed, and an old chest with a few dents and scratches. The rest of the stuff was just clothes, for Charlie and Emily, plus a few blankets and pillows. The boys moved the stuff into the house, sitting the highchair next the the kitchen counter and leaving the chest sitting all by itself next to his pathetic bed on the floor.

"Wow. This place sucks," Miles said.

Bass glared at him. "Sorry, I haven't gotten around to hiring a decorator yet."

Miles rolled his eyes in response, but changed the subject. "Where's Charlie?"

"She went hunting this morning."

"Really?" Miles looked surprised.

"Yeah, what's the big deal?"

He shook his head slowly. "Nothing, it's just that Charlie hasn't been out since before Emily was born."

Before Bass had time to contemplate that piece of information, Charlie popped her head through the, still broken, backdoor. "Hey, can I get some help out here?" The boys gave each other matching questioning looks, but followed her out of the house.

In the backyard, there was a large buck lying dead and bloody on the grass. Charlie had ropes slung around it with the obvious intent to hang it from a tree. Miles let out a low whistle. "Guess Mommy hasn't lost her touch, huh?"

Charlie grinned and they both pulled on the ropes, Bass watching as the animal was suspended from the tree, a long cut had already been made along it's stomach. "How did you..." he trailed off looking at the enormous animal in amazement. "You weren't even gone for two hours... and that thing's like twice your size. How did you even get it here?"

Miles clapped him on the shoulder with a laugh. "Dude, don't bother, Charlie never reveals her hunting secrets."

The woman herself gave him a self-satisfied smile. "You and Miles may be the best when it comes to killing people, but hunting? That's my thing."

Bass nodded, watching her start to peel the skin from the carcass. Emily whined, holding her hands out towards Charlie and making grabby fists. Charlie frowned. "Fine," she grumbled playfully. "Let me get cleaned up then it's Mommy's turn." She planted a kiss on Emily's head and went to wash up in the well.

"Can you guys take care of the meat then?" She asked as she took Emily from him.

Miles stopped observing the little family long enough to nod his head and smile. Bass followed suit, standing with Miles and watching the girls disappear into the house. He looked up at the large animal and then back at Miles. "Seriously though, how did she get this thing all the way back here?"

XxX

Bass was at Ralph's working for the afternoon and after some persuading (it hadn't taken much), Miles had driven her and Emily into town so they could sell the meat at the butcher's. Gale was a good man that knew his trade well, he'd given Charlie the best deal possible and sent them on their way. Though not before making her promise to bring him something else by the end of the week. They were currently sitting in Marion's bar, which served as a diner during the day, having a late lunch.

"A cat. You serious?"

"Yep. It's a cute, little kitten."

Miles stared at her, his glass halfway to his lips, Emily shoving her fingers into his mashed potatoes. "Bass hates cats. Why does he have a cat?"

Charlie snorted. "Don't look a me, the cat was there before I was."

Aaron pulled up a chair and snagged a piece of chicken off of her plate. "Monroe has a cat? Seriously?"

Charlie threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "Yes, he has a cat. Who cares?"

The larger man shrugged. "Just never pictured him as a cat person."

She rolled her eyes. "People can change, you know." She pointed across the table at Miles who was currently wrestling Emily for the last bite of potatoes. He stopped when he noticed them watching, admitting defeat and letting Emily suck the remainder of the fluffy stuff off of his spoon. She smacked her little lips happily and reached out to Aaron who plopped her into his lap.

"I haven't seen you all week," he told the little girl seriously. "Your Daddy's a baby hog."

"Give him a break," Charlie said quietly, staring at her food. "We've had six months with her, he's only had a few weeks."

Aaron grabbed her hand and squeezed her fingers gently. "I know, I was joking."

Charlie looked up at the two men, seeing their concered faces. "I know," she groaned into her hands. "It's just been a weird couple of days."

Miles patted her shoulder gently. "Stop thinking so hard. This is your life, not a math test."

XxX

It was late when Bass finally stumbled through the front door. A group of kids from town had thought it'd be funny to unlock the gate to the goats little enclosure. He and Ralph had spent the last six hours in the woods trying to find the seven missing animals. When it had finally gotten dark, Ralph had called it quits and told him to go home. There was still one goat missing, but Bass figured it would come home on it's own eventually.

There was a bowl of something waiting for him on the counter along with a hunk of fresh bread. He picked up the still warm, flakey piece and stuck his nose in it, sighing at the heavenly scent.

"It's usually better if you eat it," Charlie whispered. She was standing in the doorway to the bedroom in her sleeping shirt, a small smile on her face. Bass felt his heart speed up at the sight of her.

"I'll get there, eventually." He sniffed the bread again for effect then dunked it in the soup and took a big bite, actually groaning at the taste. "This is so fucking good." He ignored any and all manners, shoveling down the food as Charlie came over to lean against the counter.

"You look tired," she said softly.

He snorted in between mouthfuls of delicious soup. "Spent the day chasing down goats. Did you know that goats run really fast? Because I didn't."

Charlie giggled and Bass smiled at the sound, slowing his pace with the food as he turned to really look at her. She looked so at ease, standing in the middle of his kitchen like she belonged there.

"How did it go with the butcher?" He asked in an attempt to steer the conversation away from rapidly growing fantasyland where they all lived happily ever after.

"Good. Gale always gives me the best price."

"Yeah... he seems to like you." Was that jealousy in his voice? When had he become the jealous husband? Well... not husband, not even boyfriend. Which just made the whole thing more ridiculous.

Charlie shrugged. "Yeah, but I'm not really interested."

God, she was not helping get rid of his fantasy. "No? Why not?"

Suddenly she was right in front of him, her small breasts brushing against his chest. "I think you know why," she whispered. Her blue eyes wide and full of all the unsaid things between them.

He leaned down, brushing his nose against hers. "I think I might." He pressed his lips gently against hers, waiting and hoping like hell he hadn't totally misread this entire situation. His fears were quickly stamped out by Charlie's fingers twisting in the front of his jacket, pulling him closer to her. He tentatively wrapped his arms around her, when she didn't pull away he pulled her small body flush against his. Their mouths moved slowly, his tongue tracing her full lips. His hands slid down her back to her ass, grabbing the supple flesh firmly in his hand. Charlie moaned against his lips and pulled him closer, wrapping her arms around his neck and threading her fingers through his soft curls.

The kiss grew in intensity, their tongues darting out to explore. It was sort of like the first time, slow and quiet, but so different. So much more lay between them now. Emily, their family, created both a bridge and a barrier. Both of them wanting the same thing but neither one really willing to risk their simple relationship for fear of hurting Emily in the future. Their daughter would need both of her parents, agreeable and on good speaking terms.

Bass pulled away slowly, combing waves of her long hair with his fingers. "Charlie, if we do this... then there's no going back."

She stared up at him, her blue eyes clear and full of something he wasn't quite willing to name yet. "Good. I don't want to go back."

He yanked her lips back to his, angling his mouth over hers hungrily. Charlie clawed at his jacket, pushing it off of his shoulders so it fell to the floor and tearing his t-shirt over his head. She pressed him back against the counter, her hands roaming over the hard lines of his chest, her lips attached to the hollow of his throat. Bass bunched the shirt she was wearing up around her hips, sliding his hands over her soft curves. She gasped when he slid his fingers into her underwear, then growled something unintelligible and reached for his belt.

"Bed," she panted.

Bass shook his head, attaching his lips to her neck. "Don't want to wake Emily," he rasped back.

Charlie abruptly stepped away from him and pulled her shirt over her head, leaving her bare except the sorry excuse for panties she was wearing. She turned away from him but looked back over her shoulder, blonde hair swinging like a curtain over her toned body. "You coming?" She asked innocently.

"Absolutely."

* * *

A/N Huge thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed, you guys make me smile! :-D This isn't the end of the story I still have a little bit of stuff I'd like to throw in there so I hope you'll stick around. :-)


	10. Chapter 10

Charlie landed in a sweaty heap next to Bass, his pathetic bed on the floor providing no cushion for her less than graceful dismount. Bass laughed, taking deep breaths as he did, and rolled on his side to kiss her. "Are you going to wake me up like that everyday?" He asked with a grin.

She let out a loud snort. "I don't know... maybe."

He kissed her again. "Well feel free to wake me up whenever you make up your mind."

They kissed slowly, soft and sweet, their tongues exploring gently. The perfect morning was interrupted by Emily's cries coming from the bedroom. "I think we woke her up," Charlie whispered against his lips.

Bass propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at her accusingly. "What do you mean, 'we'?" Rolling her eyes, Charlie made to get up but Bass pushed her back down. "I'll get her." He moved quickly, Emily's fussing subsiding the moment the bedroom door was opened. Charlie sat up on their makeshift bed and leaned her back against the wall as he brought the baby out. Emily reached for her mother groggily and the moment she was in Mommy's arms, latched on to a breast.

When Charlie made no attempt to cover her bare chest or the eating baby, he sat down next to them and cuddled up to her side, watching Emily suckle from over Charlie's shoulder. "She's so perfect," he said quietly. He reached over and pinched her little cheek lightly, chuckling when she batted his hand away with a chubby fist, her blue eyes glaring up at him sleepily. "I don't think she likes it when I do that." He tried again, this time tickling her little feet, which earned him a few wild kicks in his direction.

Charlie elbowed him in the ribs. "Cut it out, how would you like it if somebody tried to mess with you while you were eating?" Though he couldn't miss the ghost of a smile crossing her face.

XxX

Things were really starting to look up for their little family. Bass was still working with Ralph and Aaron had given Charlie a job at the school watching the kids during lunch. According to Aaron, they wanted the teachers to be able to have a break from the kids during the day, but Bass suspected that it had more to do with having some spare time with his lady friend. Though he tried not to think about the two of them in the old Principals office, ugh, it gave him some horrible mental images that Charlie would have to kiss away later.

The town was having quite the baby boom at the moment, which was great for keeping Rachel busy and away from them. It was also great for freeing up Miles so he could help get the house fixed up for winter. Ralph had somehow managed to find an unbroken window in one of the abandoned houses around town and the three of them had spent almost an entire day removing it from one house and installing it into theirs. The window was a bit too small, so they'd then gone out and tore some of the drywall in the other house down, removed some of the insulation, and boarded up the gaps the small window had left behind.

On another day, Aaron and Cynthia had come with Miles. Cynthia had helped Charlie start a winter garden while Aaron and Emily watched Bass and Miles patch some weak spots in the roof. Over the course of a few weeks their crappy, little house had become a home. Ralph and Opal bought themselves a new dining table with matching chairs that the local carpenter had made, then forced them to accept the old set as a gift.

Charlie had even come back from hunting one day with no game in her hands but an enormous smile on her face. She had found an old shack that was partially caved in, and after a few hours of sifting they'd uncovered a dresser, a battered coffee table, and a bed. Unfortunately the mattress was useless, it had more mold on it then the one they already had, but the queen size iron bedstead was in perfect condition. Lugging the damn thing back to the house hadn't been fun, but it was worth it for that smile on Charlie's face.

They were saving up as much money as they could for a trip to Austin, which was basically the only place you could buy a mattress these days. It would be expensive, but it would be totally worth it when they finally got to spend the night together in a real bed.

XxX

Charlie was sitting on the low stone wall in front of the school watching over the children while they enjoyed their half hour break from class. For such a small town, Willoughby's school had a pretty impressive class size. There were thirty-seven kids enrolled and only a quarter of them lived outside of the wall. Since there weren't really colleges anymore, the town considered kids finished with school when they hit sixteen. If they wanted to study further, they had to go to Austin to do it.

They classified the kids as Uppers or Lowers, and since school in Texas wasn't mandatory, there were only twelve kids enrolled in the Upper levels (age 12-16). The older kids, like most teenagers, deemed school unworthy of their attention and usually spent lunch gathered around a large oak tree in the yard, complaining about how stupid they thought adults were. For the most part, Charlie left them alone. As long as they stayed over by their tree and didn't start fist fighting (again) she was content to let them whine about whatever they wanted.

The Lowers were much more entertaining. The group seemed naturally split between what she liked to call 'the babies' - which were the five and six year olds, and 'the brats' - the seven to twelve aged kids who just loved making trouble. Dominic Frasier, a particularly nasty ten year old with a crush on her, seemed to really enjoy throwing the vegetables his mother packed in his lunch at Meghan Herbert, a poor little five year old with pigtails that cried at the slightest provocation.

It was Friday, which meant that Charlie was anticipating Dominic's attack to come at any time, so she hadn't noticed Bass coming up the stone path towards her with Emily.

"Hey, gorgeous." They'd been officially 'together' for about three weeks now, but Charlie had a feeling that hearing him say those words would never fail to make her heart flutter.

She pulled Emily down onto her lap and tickled her belly. "How's my baby?"

"Oh he's fine, thanks for asking." Bass responded sarcastically.

Charlie looked up at him, doing her best to keep the smile off of her face. "Funny, I could have sworn you were a man," she shrugged. "But I've been wrong before."

He sat down next to her and leaned close to her ear, a hand squeezing her thigh. "I'm definitely a man, sweetheart. Guess I'll have to remind you later." He slid his hand slowly up her leg while he bit down on her earlobe, making her gasp loudly. The teenagers surrounding the oak tree across the lawn broke out into fits of giggles, making Bass look up quickly, surprised to find that they had an audience that was actually paying attention. They were still giggling when he turned to her, his cheeks adorably flushed. "Sorry," he muttered, tipping his head in the kids direction.

Charlie shrugged. "Whatever, at least they aren't fighting."

Dominic picked that moment to fling a carrot stick from his picnic table on the left towards the babies table on the right. It hit Meghan square in the back of the head. She shrieked loudly and immediately started balling as if someone had actually hurt her. Charlie glared daggers at the boy, going over to comfort the little girl before starting his way. On her approach, the boy scooted back in his seat, his eyes wide with fear.

"Whoa, hang on a second." Bass grabbed her from behind and whispered in her ear. "I don't think making a kid pee his pants is going to be good for your job," he warned.

Charlie stopped, huffing an angry breath through her nose. All of the children, including the teenagers, were watching her to see what she would do. She mumbled something under her breath and grabbed for Emily. "Fine, if you know so much, you watch them."

Bass watched her stomp back over to her wall, thoroughly ignoring him. Aware that he had thirty-seven sets of school age eyes on him, Bass did the only educational thing he could think of, he talked about the Civil War. At first none of the kids seemed interested, except for Meghan - who was just grateful not to be a human target at the moment, and completely ignored him. But when he started talking about battles and started reenacting a fight between two soldiers while standing on Dominic's picnic table, the kids started paying attention. By the time he made it to President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, even Charlie was listening in. He was working his way through President Lincoln's assassination when the lunch bell rang.

"Aww, come on!" Dominic glared at the bell as if that would make it stop ringing.

"Did he really shoot him in the theater?" On of the little girls asked, Charlie thought her name might be Isabella.

"Did they catch him?" A boy, probably Dominic's age asked. Bass' head looked like it might explode as he tried to come up with an answer for all of the questions at once.

"Did his blood go everywhere?" Thomas, one of the Upper kids, finally gave up on pretending not to be interested and came over. "Did his brain like, ooze out of his head?" He asked excitedly.

All the little girls squealed in disgust, even some of the older girls looked grossed out. Bass tilted his head and stared at the teenage boy for a moment, something strange flitting across his face before it disappeared. Charlie pushed her way into the little group that had formed around him. "Alight you guys, get to class or Mr. Pittman will put all of us in detention."

This was met with lots of grumbling, Dominic turning to Bass with pleading eyes. "You're gonna come back tomorrow and tell us the rest, right?"

Bass gave him a warm smile. "I'll be here."

"Cool." The kids all ran off to class, leaving Charlie to stare down at Bass with wonder. He rolled his eyes and got up, taking Emily in one arm and pulling her close with the other. They started home silently, their fingers intertwined, Emily babbling about what they assumed was supposed to be 'birdys', though it sounded more like 'buh-bee'. She wondered vaguely if Emily meant bumblebee.

"Why did you make that weird face at Thomas when he asked you about the guys' brains?" She asked.

Bass chuckled, lifting their joined hands to his lips to kiss her knuckles. "Nothing, he just reminded me of something." At her raised eyebrow, he continued. "Me and Miles. We were like that when we were his age. Loved everything to do with blood and guts."

"So much has changed," she added sarcastically.

"We have," he said defensively. "I mean, look," he held up Emily as an example. "I don't have time for fights anymore. My life revolves around giggles and diaper changes."

Charlie pulled him to a stop in the middle of the market and look up at his face. The sun was shining beautifully behind him, his blue eyes were completely focused on her. "I know," she said quietly. Then she kissed him, light and happy. "I love you." She wasn't sure where the words came from, but now that they were out she couldn't take them back. She found that she didn't want to. He opened his mouth to say something, she had no idea what, but was cut off by a loud, authoritative voice.

"Sebastian Monroe?"

Bass closed his eyes and let out a slow, calming breath before turning around. There were at least ten Texas Rangers surrounding them, the town's sheriff looking particularly smug next to their leader.

"Yes, that's me." Charlie heard several gasps of surprise, but ignored the townspeople in favor of the obvious threat around them.

"You are under arrest for committing crimes against the general public," the man drawled. "I'll have to check my list, but let's just go for the general 'mass murder' charge." Several of the men around him laughed as Charlie's heart lept into her throat.

"You can't do that," she argued, "he-"

Bass yanked her away from the Rangers. "Charlie, don't." He shook his head sadly, passing their daughter over to her. Emily seemed to sense that not all was right in her little world and began to cry, reaching for her Daddy. Bass cupped her little head in his hands and kissed her forehead and both cheeks. "I love you, baby," he whispered to her. Then he kissed Charlie softly on the cheek, his mouth close to her ear. "I love you, too." Then he backed away, his sad eyes locked on hers, his hands up in surrender.

* * *

A/N Thanks for reading everyone! Leave me a review if you have a second to spare! :-D


	11. Chapter 11

The world seemed to be moving in slow motion, the desire to run and fight for Bass being pushed away by the desire to take Emily and run the other way. When she did get a hold of herself, the Rangers had already led him halfway down the street. Charlie followed them at a run.

"Wait, wait! You can't take him, he's... he's my..."

"Ma'am, you need to step away from the prisoner. It's for your own safety." The town sheriff grabbed her upper arm, sending her into a frenzy. She called out to Bass, shouting obscenities at the Rangers and then begging them to let him go.

"Charlie, stop it. It's alright." Bass was trying to calm her down but she wasn't having it. A firm, gentle hand landed on her shoulder and she immediately sagged against Ralph. He pulled her close and patted her back comfortingly.

"They can't do this," she said through her tears. Ralph said nothing, thought he watched the Rangers march Bass towards the Town Hall with a grim expression. Aaron and Cynthia came running down the street, someone must have told them about the commotion in the market, both of them wearing grave expressions.

"They can't do this," she repeated to them. Cynthia gently took Emily and started rocking her in an attempt to calm her down while Aaron took over comforting her. His arms wrapped around her and she buried her face in his chest. "They can't Aaron, they just can't."

He rubbed soothing circles on her back. "I know. I know."

XxX

Cynthia crammed them all into her tiny living room. Ralph and Opal were squished on the love seat with a sleeping Emily, Charlie and Aaron were sharing the couch though they were saving a spot for when Cynthia got back with some drinks.

"Don't worry, Charlie." Ralph told her. "I've known some of them Rangers since they were kids, we'll get this all sorted out first thing in the morning."

Charlie smiled at him. Ralph was a good man, but she knew that Bass would never want him to put himself in a bad position just for trying to help him. "That's alright, Ralph. Bass wouldn't want you-"

"Well, if Bass wanted to say something about it then he should have been here instead of gettin' himself locked up then. I'm goin' first thing, whether you like it or not."

Opal patted her husband's arm affectionately. "That's right, honey. You tell her." Caught between the urge to yell and tell them both to shut it and the urge to burst into tears, Charlie opted to keep her mouth shut and try for a thankful smile.

Cynthia came back with some water for everyone and they all sat in a stunned sort of silence for a little while, punctured only by Emily's adorable little snores. When Cynthia got up to get everyone a snack, someone started knocking frantically on the door. They didn't even wait for her to answer. Instead, Miles burst into the house, his eyes wide and feral, with Rachel trailing along behind him.

Maybe no one else noticed, or maybe no one cared, but Charlie saw something... off in her mother's facial expression. While Miles continued to rant and demand answers for his best friend's imprisonment, Charlie continued to watch Rachel. She didn't seem the least bit concerned, which wasn't surprising, though she did seem awfully chipper, like something had gone right. Like a woman who had finally gotten her way.

"God, you bitch." Uncaring that she was interrupting Miles' rant, Charlie rose slowly from the couch and moved towards her mother.

Rachel rose her eye browns unconcernedly. "What was that, sweetheart?" The underlying smugness to her words cut through Charlie like a knife.

"You did this! You turned him in to the Rangers." Her mother didn't bother denying it, but she did shrug her shoulders indifferently.

"That man is dangerous, I was doing my civic duty."

BAM!

Charlie's fist moved so fast that no one really even realized what had happened until Rachel was already on the floor with blood pouring from her split lip. Charlie jumped on her mother's chest and wrapped her hands around her neck with her thumbs pressing down on her windpipe. "You had no right," she growled. "That's Emily's father, and you just sentenced him to death!"

Miles ripped her unceremoniously from on top of Rachel and tossed her aside. Opal and Cynthia scurried into the kitchen with a waking Emily to keep her out of the way of the impending fight while Aaron and Ralph tired to hold her back from doing more damage. Rachel lay gasping for breath on the floor but even Miles didn't seem inclined to help her up.

"It's true, isn't it. You did this." He looked down at the woman he supposedly loved and shook his head. "How could you... What is wrong with you?"

Rachel growled, getting gingerly to her feet. "How could I?" She asked in a raspy voice. "He murdered my son, and then he tried to steal my daughter, my granddaughter." She shook her head wildly, her eyes glazed over with rage. "He has taken enough, and it is time for him to get his punishment."

Miles seemed at a loss for what to say, so Aaron tried to reason with her. "Rachel, don't you think that we've all suffered enough? I mean, how could you take away someone that Charlie loves?"

"She doesn't love him. She just wants to hurt me," Rachel insisted.

"Not everything is about you," Charlie spat back angrily. "We were doing just fine without you. I'm your daughter, your supposed to support me-"

"I will never support you loving that sociopath!"

Charlie didn't even know what to say to that. Instead, she walked calmly to the kitchen and took Emily from Opal. Then she walked back to the living room and stood in front of her mother. "Say goodbye to Grandma, Emily. You won't be seeing her again."

Rachel blanched. "You can't..." she trailed off weakly.

"I don't want a sociopath around my daughter." Charlie walked out of the house and slammed the door shut behind her.

XxX

Two guards pushed Charlie into his cell. Bass was tempted to yell at them for manhandling her, but she recovered quickly and was instantly in his arms. His hands were chained close together so it was weird at first with her arms wrapped tightly around him and his own pinned at his sides, but she fixed it easily by pulling his joined hands over her head. He pulled her close and buried his face in her soft hair.

"I'm so sorry, Charlie."

She leaned away from him and shook her head. "Don't. This isn't your fault. Rachel should never have-"

"I've done a lot of bad things-"

"So?" Charlie tried to push him away but since she was stuck between his arms it didn't really work. "You've done a lot of good things, too."

Bass gave her a doubtful look.

"You have. Just look at Emily, and Ralph, and the kids at the school... And me."

"The only thing I did to you was get you pregnant."

"Which was a good thing." Charlie bit her lip, tears filling her eyes. "Before I found out I was pregnant, I was so lost. I had no idea what to do with myself. Emily saved my life. So did you."

Bass blinked back a few of his own tears and kissed her forehead. "You saved me, too."

They clung to each other before Charlie pulled back again. "We only have five minutes though, so now I need you to listen. Alright?" He looked confused but still nodded. "Ok, they only let family in to see prisoners so me and Ralph had to tell them that you and I are... well, married."

He stared at her stupidly, making her chuckle and hold up her left hand. On her ring finger was a shiny gold band. "So if anyone asks, we got married when me and Emily moved in. Ok?" He nodded numbly and she bit her lip nervously. "I'm sorry. I know that this wasn't really a part of the plan, but it was the only way they would let me see you and..." Her voice trailed off uncertainly and it occurred to Bass that she honestly thought he might not want to be married to her.

God, she really was adorable.

Bass kissed her, putting an effective stop to her babbling. They clung to each other, their tongues tangling desperately as if they believed that it would be the last time. When they finally broke apart gasping for breath, Bass grinned down at her. "I now pronounce us man and wife."

Charlie laughed and pressed her forehead against his chest. "So you aren't mad?"

" 'Course not." He reached for her hand and played with the ring around her finger. "Where did you get this?"

"It was Opal's. The ring was Ralph's idea, he said it would make the marriage seem more legitimate. Especially considering it never actually happened."

Bass looked down at her seriously. "Do you love me, Charlie?"

"Of course," she whispered.

He kissed her gently on the lips. "Then it's real."

The door to his cell screeched open and the two men that had shoved her in reappeared. "Time's up."

Charlie gave his hand a squeeze before extracting herself from his linked embrace. "I'll be back tomorrow."

XxX

And she was. The day after that and the day after that, too. Everyday for five minutes Charlie would visit him. They tried to talk about his situation at first but gave it up as a lost cause when all it did was reduce Charlie to tears. They both knew what was going to happen to him. They both knew that their fairy tale was going to end with a bullet in his head. So instead they cuddled on his little cot and talked about Emily, about their favorite things they had done together so far, and about all of the things that they wished they still had time for.

Miles' visits were different. When he came in it was all business. Apparently, Cynthia's father had been an attorney before the blackout, so she and Aaron were working on his legal defence. Though everyone seemed to agree not to tell Charlie about it. Not yet, anyway, they didn't want her to get her hopes up only to have it all ripped away again.

The good news was that Texas was so determined to prove that they had a good, solid government - complete with a great justice system, that Aaron and Cynthia had plenty of laws and loopholes to work with. The bad news was that he was such a high profile prisoner. They were all afraid that technicalities just wouldn't cut it. As a long standing, respected member of the town's council, Ralph planned to speak on his behalf and give a glowing review on his character.

The bombs that destroyed Atlanta and Philly were proving to be a big problem. Ultimately, Miles and Aaron agreed that the only way to deal with that was to tell people what had actually happened. Both of them were planning to testify. Cynthia thought that having Charlie speak as well would help, but Bass begged them not to drag her anymore into it. They all agreed not to put her on the stand unless it was absolutely necessary.

It took them a week, but the guards finally relented the 'one visitor at a time' rule, and let Charlie bring Emily in with her. She was quiet as Charlie brought her into the unfamiliar room but she perked up when her sky blue eyes found his face. Emily reached out to him with chubby hands. "Da!"

He grabbed her right out of Charlie's hands and had to remind himself not to crush his baby girl while he hugged her. "That's right, baby. Say 'da-da'."

She grinned up at him. "Da!" Charlie tried to run away to hide her tears but Bass pushed Emily back into her arms and quickly threw his arms over her head again, preventing an escape. She cried against his chest and he silently cried into her hair. Emily babbled, seemingly unconcerned with being crushed between her parents.

"Promise me something, Charlie."

"Anything."

"Don't let my daughter grow up without a father." Charlie tensed in his arms but he held on tighter to keep her from pulling away. "I'm serious. If I don't make it out of this, then promise me that you will find someone. Someone good, that treats you and Emily right. Someone that will love her as his own." His voice threatened to crack but he swallowed it down. "Promise me."

"You'll come back," she answered stubbornly.

"Just promise, Charlie. Please." She nodded against his chest and for the first time since the Rangers had slapped the cuffs on his wrists, Bass actually breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course he wanted to be the one to raise Emily, but sometimes, life didn't always agree with him.

* * *

A/N Thank you for reading everyone. Let me know what you think if you have a second!


	12. Chapter 12

Miles flopped back onto the couch with a sigh, Emily crawling onto his lap and making herself right at home as he did. Aaron continued his frantic search through the dusty volumes of law centered material in search of their latest loophole. Emily grabbed a hold of his collar and gleefully pulled herself up on wobbly legs before promptly falling back down on her butt. He caught her so she wouldn't fall off, which she seemed to find particularly funny.

Aaron looked over to see what she was giggling about as she made another attempt to stand up, this time with Miles' hands hovering near her diaper-clad butt to steady her. "Where's Charlie?"

"Opal said she needed her help canning some of her garden stuff." Miles shrugged. "I think she's just trying to keep Charlie's mind occupied. She's been driving herself crazy since they locked Bass up, and her nightmares are ten times worse than they usually are. I've been spiking her tea with whiskey to help knock her out. She hasn't said anything about it... but I'm pretty sure she knows."

"Do you think she'll be ok if we don't... if we can't get him back?" Aaron asked.

Miles didn't look at him. He sat and watched the determined look on Emily's face as she tried, yet again, to stand up on her own. Her face reminded him so much of Bass in that moment it made his heart ache at the thought of not being able to save him. He thought of Charlie, how miserable she had been before Bass showed up in Willoughby, how she'd been trying to convince everyone, including herself, that she was fine.

"No, she won't be alright."

He knew that with absolute certainty.

XxX

After being locked up for nearly three weeks, Bass was more than happy to get out of his little box. The guards had even given him a tub of room temperature water to wash up in and let Charlie bring him some clean clothes. The fact that his first trip out of the box led to his trial, and impending doom, was being deliberately ignored.

It was early in the morning, so Charlie and Emily hadn't been able to visit first, the sun was shining and the townspeople were gathering to watch him be marched to the courthouse. He kept his eyes focused ahead of him, his mind on his family.

They were all waiting for him. Charlie was sitting in the first row with Miles, Ralph, and Opal while Cynthia sat at a small table by herself in the front of the room. The empty chair next to her was obviously for him. The other table had a fierce looking man with a very large, not to mention ugly, woman next to him. Twelve people he'd never seen before in his life sat against the wall. Those people would decide his fate.

Carver, the President of Texas, had even come out to see him off. He sat quietly in his seat, sneaking smug glances in Miles' direction. Bass fought down the urge to assassinate him. He was in enough trouble already.

There were a few other people in the courtroom as well, he notice Gale the butcher, the old lady that he'd tried to buy oil from on his first day in town, Marion from the bar, and even Gene Porter had come to watch the proceedings. Which side he was rooting for was unclear. Rachel was conspicuously absent, he had thought she wouldn't want to miss this, and sadly Emily was nowhere in sight. Which was good he guessed... he didn't want the last time his daughter saw him to be when they hauled him off to die. But he did wonder who was watching her. He hoped it wasn't Rachel.

Bass took his seat next to Cynthia, noticing the subtle shaking in her hands. He whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "don't worry, I know I'm dead, so don't blame yourself." She turned to him then, giving him a strange look that quickly turned into a genuine smile.

"My grandfather used to tell me not to count my chickens before they hatch, you should take the same advise."

There was no chance to decipher her meaning as the room stood up respectfully for the judge to enter. Once everyone was seated, he addressed the room at large. "I understand that everyone has very strong feelings about this particular case, however, this trial will proceed as any other. Any attempts to derail the proceedings in anyway will be considered contempt and you will be charged, that I can promise." The judge's eyes swept over Miles and Charlie like he thought they might object, but they remained stoic.

"Good, then let's get this over with. The defendant is being charged with fraud, trespassing (Bass couldn't figure out where that one came from), racketeering, attempted murder of a public official, conspiracy, capitol murder, and terrorism. How does the defendant plead?"

Bass stood silently for a moment. When all of his crimes were piled up like that, it made him sound like a monster. The worst part was that that wasn't even half of the crimes he'd committed. Cynthia nudged him and sent him a glare that clearly said '_get your head in the game.' _He shook off the unpleasant memories of dead bodies and orphaned children, and cleared his throat. "Not guilty."

This was met with a gasp from the crowd and much whispering, though the judge and the rest of the legal team didn't look surprised, so Bass figured Cynthia must have talked to him before hand.

The judge rolled his eyes in an annoyed sort of way and said, "very well. Miss Collins, you may proceed with whatever ridiculous defense you've dreamed up for your client."

Cynthia glared at the judge, who only appeared amused by it, and stood up. "Thank you, your Honor. I think it would be best to discuss the simple charges first, so as far as racketeering, conspiracy, and any of the murder charges go, those do not apply in this courtroom."

The room fell silent, the judge, the prosecutor, and the jury, all staring at her in disbelief.

"Those crimes were not committed in the nation of Texas, therefore, we do not have jurisdiction over those crimes and Mr. Monroe can not be charged with them here."

The prosecutor glared at her angrily. "He tried to assassinate General Blanchard, that happened on Texas soil."

This was met with many nods and 'yeah's' from the audience.

Cynthia kept her composure though and addressed the judge. "Actually, your Honor, Miles Matheson was responsible for the attempt on General Frank Blanchard's life. Sebastian Monroe wasn't even in the country at the time."

This was also met with angry shouting, the prosecutor even stepped away from his table and towards Cynthia with a pen grasped tightly in his hand. The judged slammed his gavel down on the table and ordered him back to his seat, meanwhile watching Cynthia over the top of his glasses.

"Do you have proof of this, Miss Collins?"

Bass heard her breath out a shaky breath, though he figured no one else would have heard it. "I do." She pulled an old folder from her bag and produced the post-blackout version of a newspaper from it. The bailiff took it up to the judge. "That is a newspaper clipping from the day before the assassination attempt. You'll note that the article and accompanying picture depict former President Monroe visiting a field hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. The photo was taken two days before the paper was published, which is noted at the bottom."

The judge scrutinized the paper carefully, but Bass could see in the older man's angry movements that he already knew that Cynthia was right. Bass hadn't been in Texas at the time, so there was no case against him. For that particular crime, anyway.

"Very well." Though the judge seemed less than happy about it. "Not that it matters." He grinned gleefully at this, "the terrorism charge still stands. The bombs that destroyed Philadelphia and Atlanta may not have been dropped here, but they have directly affected our people and our resources."

"Yes," Cynthia agreed, "the bombs have had an affect on Texas, though - and I intend to prove it - they were not the result of Mr. Monroe's actions."

And more yelling. It took a while longer to get the crowd under control this time.

"And how do you plan to prove this?" The judge asked.

Cynthia took a deep breath and visibly prepared herself for what was about to happen. "I would like to call my first witness, former General Miles Matheson."

XxX

Nearly two hours later, Miles stomped down from the stand in a bad mood after giving his account of what had happened in The Tower. Bass had to hold back a laugh. His brother hated public speaking, but he especially hated admitting when he was wrong, making him do both at the same time was nothing short of torture. Miles shot him one of his '_shut up, dick_' looks on his way back to his seat.

The judge was rubbing his temples tiredly, a look of confusion on his face. "You expect this courtroom to believe that the bombs that were dropped were actually part of a larger conspiracy that was orchestrated by the United States government?" He laughed. "I hope you have more proof than the say-so of a drunken ex-General, Miss Collins."

Cynthia actually smiled at this, having spent weeks pulling the story together, she was genuinely excited to tell it. "Yes, I do. I'd like to call Aaron Pittman to the stand."

They listened to Aaron give his account of the events of The Tower. He started with the moment Bass and Rachel had shown up to rescue Charlie from the guy that had cornered them and ended with Randal Flynn blowing his brains out right in front of them. He even told everyone that he'd tried to stop the attack, but he had been too late.

"Monroe wasn't even in the room when Flynn hit the button. Actually, I'm not sure if he was even in the building."

Given that Aaron was actually well known around town, a favorite teacher of the kids in school, and best known for rescuing Cynthia from her abusive husband, Bass could tell that people were finding it more difficult to discredit him. The judge was practically growling, the prosecutor fuming in his seat, the jury looking torn.

"I have one more witness I would like to call," Cynthia announced to the room.

Bass shot her a look, shaking his head. He knew that the only other person in the room that knew the truth was Charlie, and he didn't want to put her on the stand. He didn't want her to have to relive it.

Cynthia ignored him. "Charlotte Matheson-Monroe." Charlie walked slowly to the stand, her face set. "Mrs. Monroe, just so the court is clear, you do know that being married to the defendant means that you don't _have_ to testify, correct?"

Charlie took a deep breath and Bass could see her tucking away all of her insecurities behind a calm mask. "Yes, I'm aware. I want to testify anway."

"Alright then. Would you please explain, in your own words, the events that led up to the bombing of Atlanta and Philadelphia."

Charlie gave her a small smile. "It's kind of a long story."

Cynthia looked over at the judge and then addressed the room at large. "Well I think that I can speak for everyone in saying that we would all like to know how you came to be married to the man that murdered both your father and your brother. Am I right?" Murmurs of agreement filled the room and the members of the jury sat up a little straighter. Apparently, Bass wasn't the only one that was interested in her answer. So far, he and Charlie had gone along with the unspoken agreement not to talk about Ben and Danny, but that didn't mean that he wasn't curious about how she felt about it.

To his surprise, Charlie looked directly at him and said, "while my husband was partly to blame for their deaths, I don't consider him to be their killer."

Cynthia seemed unsurprised by the revelation, which made her about the only one in the room, and asked gently, "then who is their killer?"

Charlie looked over at the jury, an untamed fury in her eyes. "Rachel Matheson."

This was met with silence.

"Mrs. Monroe, would you like to give an explanation?"

Charlie sighed, her mask slipping momentarily, revealing that she really didn't want to explain anything, but she pulled herself back together and looked calmly around the room. "It started two years ago. My family lived in a small village in Wisconsin..."

* * *

A/N I decided not to skip the courtroom part of the story because I thought I'd be fun to write... It's not. :-P I'm not a lawyer, I just watch too much TV, so anything that's wrong can just be considered what Texas would do if it really was it's own country. Also, I'm almost positive that Cynthia and Aaron weren't married so for this story she is Cynthia Collins. And no, Rachel is not watching Emily (for any of you who may have been concerned :-))


	13. Chapter 13

Charlie knew going into the courtroom that this day would determine the rest of her life. She wasn't sure she was ready. But she did it anyway, taking the stand and smiling out at the courtroom. She caught Miles' eye and he nodded, he knew what she was planning to do and he was giving her permission.

"My mother, Rachel Matheson, had an affair with my dad's brother, Miles Matheson. She was in love him. When she found out that she was pregnant with me, Rachel went to Miles and told him that she loved him, and that she would wait for him to come back from the war so that they could be together. But Miles was married to his work as a Marine. He told her that she should marry Ben and be happy with him. My dad, Ben, never knew that I wasn't his daughter. Rachel never gave him any reason to believe otherwise. But I knew. I knew that my mother didn't love me - at least not in the same way she loved Danny. He was her favorite because all I ever did was remind her of what she couldn't have, my existence reminded her of Miles' rejection, and she hated me for it."

In the crowd, Charlie could see the beaten down look on her grandfather's face. Gene wanted to believe that his daughter had been happily married so badly, but even he had known the truth before Ben and Rachel had said 'I do.' Miles visibly hated this admission, but seemed to be taking it better than she expected. He was fiddling nervously with the hem of his nice dress shirt, carefully not looking in Gene's direction.

Charlie continued. "And while I love my mother very much, or at least the idea of her, I can not pretend that she didn't have a hand in the destruction around us. Rachel was a scientist before the blackout. She worked for the Department of Defense, developing technology to help stop the war. My father worked with her. They called their invention 'the nano.' It was designed to absorb all of the electricity in any selected area, but the government - the same people responsible for bombing the east coast - weaponized it and used my parent's invention to cause the blackout."

The entire room was silent, people openly staring at her like she had lost her mind. Charlie took a deep breath and continued.

"The pendants were also created by the group of scientists that helped create the nano. Basically, the pendants give you a small range where electronics can be used. I wish that I could explain it better so that you could all understand but the truth is, I still don't get it. For a while, I just told myself that my dad's necklace was magic and that's why it made the lights come on. If you ignore the science behind it, it makes it a little easier to understand.

"Anyway, President Monroe knew that Rachel had information about the blackout, which was why he had his people searching for my family for such a long time. Rachel turned herself into the Militia - claiming that it was to save our family from being hunted - but really, she only did it so she could be near Miles again. Danny and I thought she was going to look for food, and when she never came back we believed she was dead. Monroe continued to search for us, but with even more conviction because he had concrete evidence that we were all alive.

"If Rachel had stayed with us and we had left The Republic together, Monroe would have eventually given up on finding us and assumed that we were dead. But she was selfish. She couldn't stand the idea of never seeing Miles again, and put the rest of us in danger because of it." Charlie took a deep breath and looked down at the ground. She wanted to stop talking, but she knew that in order for Emily to have a chance to know her father, that she would have to talk about losing her own.

She described his death in detail. From the moment she heard the gunshot ringing through the air to the moment Ben Matheson went still and lifeless in her arms. A single tear managed to slip by but she brushed it away impatiently, not having the slightest desire to break down and cry in a room full of people that were planning to kill her husband.

"My dad told me to go to Chicago, so I could find my Uncle Miles. He said that Miles would help me get Danny back. So I did. Miles, Aaron, my step-mother Maggie, Nora, and myself made our way to Philadelphia to rescue Danny." Charlie shook her head with a sad, little smile. "But it didn't go the way it was supposed to."

"I was captured while trying to rescue Danny from the power plant Monroe was keeping him in. And after eight years of mourning the death of my mother, I was thrown into a cell with a woman that I recognized, but had never met. The Rachel Matheson that I met at the age of twenty in Philadelphia, was not the same one that left when I was twelve. She looked the same, but she was colder, almost cruel."

Charlie shrugged at this admission. She'd long since accepted that her mother hated her, and after Miles had told her what had really happened between them, she knew it for sure. She stared out at the crowd trying to gauge their reactions. Aaron and Miles were both nodding, agreeing with her and giving encouragement at the same time. Bass' head was bowed. She knew he was listening though, he was probably just feeling too ashamed to look at her at the moment. That was ok, she'd fix that later. The prosecutor, however, was staring at her with disbelief.

"So Rachel Matheson indirectly caused Ben Matheson's death," he said. "She did not kill him."

Charlie frowned at him, but nodded her head. "She didn't pull the trigger, but she was responsible for it."

The prosecutor sighed and addressed the judge. "Your Honor, we aren't here to point fingers at who shot who, this is about Monroe and how he-"

"Enough." The judge gave him a stern look. "I know why we are here Counselor, thank you. However, I think I speak for everyone in saying that I would like for Mrs. Monroe to finish her story." The prosecutor slumped back down into his seat angrily as the judge turned to Charlie. "Whenever you are ready, I believe you were preparing to tell us about your brother." His voice was oddly gentle, making Charlie realize that regardless of his feelings about Bass, the judge at least believed her and was willing to listen.

"After we were captured, the three of us - myself, Danny, and Rachel - were all taken to the same room and introduced to the President. At the time, the only thing I thought about him was that he would have looked nicer with a bullet hole in his head." That surprised a laugh out of everyone, even Bass. "He was an arrogant, self-centered, insane, egotistical, asshole. And he wanted Rachel to build him an amplifier."

Cynthia, who kept smiling smugly in the prosecutor's direction as Charlie continued her story, stopped her and asked a question. "Mrs. Monroe, would mind explaining what, exactly, an amplifier is?"

"Well, it's like I said earlier, the pendants made electronic things work, but they had a very small range. An amplifier was meant to expand the range, which would have given The Republic the power to use larger weapons. For example - a helicopter - but we'll get to that later." Cynthia nodded and gestured for Charlie to move on.

"At first Rachel refused to built it, but then Monroe had one of his soldiers pull out a gun, and asked her which one of her children she wanted to die. There was no way I was going to let anyone shoot Danny, so I volunteered. That's when it all went wrong. I begged Rachel not to build it for him because I knew that he would kill thousands of people if he had electricity, but she wouldn't listen. She caved, and built the amplifier so Monroe wouldn't shoot me."

Charlie shook her head sadly, briefly wondering what would have happened if Rachel had held out, but ultimately decided that it wouldn't have mattered because she would have been dead, anyway.

"She built it, and then we somehow managed to get away. I was so happy to have my baby brother back." She smiled sadly, feeling the tears prickling in her eyes. "But a few days later, a helicopter, powered by the amplifier that Rachel built, gunned my baby brother down right in front of me. If she hadn't built it, if she had just listened to me and not been so selfish, Danny might still be alive right now."

Cynthia thanked Charlie for sharing her story with the court and then continued questioning her. "So while Monroe was the force behind their deaths, you don't hold him responsible?"

Charlie seemed to mull this over in her head, eventually shrugging her shoulders. "No, I don't. He didn't do any of those things with the intention of killing my family specifically. Rachel did whatever she wanted regardless of the consequences it could have for the rest of us. I hold her responsible because we were her family, we were her responsibility. But even now, she refuses to take the blame for any of the problems she's caused. Millions, possibly billions, of people were killed as a direct result of the blackout. Why should Bass be punished when his crimes are so much less than hers?"

After thanking her again, Cynthia sat down and let the glaring prosecutor have everyone's attention. He studied Charlie for a moment, then said, "as you were speaking, I noticed that you called your husband Monroe or President Monroe. Do you always call your husband by his surname?"

That particular question didn't require much thought, especially since she'd thought of it beforehand. "No, my husband is Bass. And yes, Bass and President Monroe are the same person, but to me they are two completely different people. President Monroe was a murdering sociopath, fueled by power and rage. Bass is the man that changes our daughter's diapers and kisses her goodnight. He's the one that chases away my nightmares when I can't sleep. The man he was is nothing like the man he is now."

Her answer definitely had the desired effect on the jury and the audience. Collective sighs and gasps of 'awww' were heard all around the room. Charlie didn't miss Miles rolling his eyes.

The judge finally decided that Charlie had been on the stand long enough and dismissed the court for the day. Stomachs growling, everyone headed out into the late afternoon in search of dinner and a drink.

XxX

When court resumed the next day, it was made clear for everyone that the jury would decide Bass' guilt in the bombings along with all of the other charges at the end of the trial. Racketeering, conspiracy, and murder had already been taken off the table, but fraud and trespassing were still apparently on the list. Bass thought that those two seemed rather silly after they had accused him of terrorism.

Apparently, the prosecutor had thought so too, since he hadn't even bothered to prepare for them.

"Mr. Monroe lied to the people of Willoughby about his true identity. No one even knew he was here until Rachel Matheson brought it to the people's attention."

It appeared that Cynthia was still having way too much fun making the prosecutor look like an idiot. "Actually, you Honor, I have several witnesses here that are willing to testify the complete opposite."

The judge, who for some reason seemed to be enjoying Cynthia's little show, gestured for her to get on with it and she called Ralph to the stand. Having lived in Willoughby his entire life, Ralph held a certain level of respect from the people. They listened patiently as he explained how he and Bass had met. He didn't even have to lie either. He told them that Bass had admitted to having a rocky past but that he was trying to make a fresh start, and that he'd been helping him ever since. The townsfolk accepted this without question. Apparently, you don't get that old without making some friends.

Opal was called to the stand next and Bass had to spend the majority of her testimony pretending like he couldn't hear her for fear of breaking down in the middle of a courtroom. The old woman sat up there and cried about how wonderful he was. That he was the perfect gentlemen just trying to carve out a life for himself, his wife, and his beautiful baby girl. She positively bawled when she admitted that Bass was the son that she and Ralph had never had.

When Opal finally gathered herself together and tottered down from the stand, she winked at him on the way back to her seat.

XxX

In the end, the jury only deliberated for twenty minutes.

"How does the jury find the defendant?"

A woman from the jury stood up and read from a small slip of paper in her hand. "On the counts of fraud and terrorism," the room took a dramatic breath, "the jury finds the defendant, not guilty."

Bass simply stared at the woman. He could hear the room around him exploding, though if it was from happiness or anger he couldn't tell, but he paid them no attention. He turned around in his seat, his eyes locking on Charlie just behind him. She nearly jumped over the small railing between them in her excitement to get to him, but everyone was quickly brought back to reality by the sound of the judge's gavel.

He glared at just about everyone in the room before turning back to the woman in the jury. "You may continue, now."

She nodded and went back to reading from her slip of paper. "On the count of trespassing, the defendant was found guilty, and sentenced to one thousand hours of community service."

Bass turned to Cynthia, confusion finding it's way through the haze of happiness. "Trespassing?"

But Cynthia merely laughed and pulled him in for a hug. The next few hours were basically the same. He was aware of Charlie's hand clasped in his or at least touching him in some way at all times while various strangers hooted and hollered, clapping him on the back. It was a whirlwind of hugs and well wishes, and he was overwhelmed by the shear number of people that seemed genuinely happy to see him.

All of that ceased to matter though when Charlie finally managed to get him through the door of Aaron and Cynthia's small house. There were two teenage girls sitting in the living room, he knew that he recognized one of them from the school, but Emily holding on to the coffee table so she could stand up on her little legs stole the show.

She pointed a single, chubby finger at him and screeched, "dada!" In that moment, it didn't matter that he'd been able to see her every day that he'd been imprisoned, it didn't matter that he'd hugged and kissed her goodbye just two days ago. All that matter was that his daughter was right in front of him and that there weren't any chains on his wrists to keep him from hugging her properly.

Bass scooped her up and kissed her all over her face, hugging and squeezing her to the point that Emily audibly objected with a "bah." He supposed that meant 'bad.' Everyone laughed.

It seemed that everyone wanted to see him, everyone wanted to talk to him, but all he wanted to do was take his girls home, put his daughter to bed, and snuggle up with his wife. He stayed anyway. He had a drink with Miles and Aaron, cried with Opal and Cynthia, tried to thank Ralph which ended with both of them in tears and neither of them ever acknowledging it happened. Ever. Hugged Gene. Thanked Gale. Thanked people he was pretty sure he'd never met.

It was never ending.

Somehow, Charlie had managed to turn everyone into his biggest fans. He suspected it had something to do with her smile and Emily's adorable face.

When the chaos finally subsided, Charlie steered him out into the darkness towards home. A diaper bag slung over his shoulder, Emily sleeping against his chest, and an arm wrapped possessively around his wife's waist, Bass made his way home.

The happy family of three didn't even notice the blonde woman hiding in the shadows.

* * *

A/N Thank you for reading everyone! Leave a comment it you have a second. :-D


	14. Chapter 14

Rachel watched her daughter walk home, leaning against her husband and looking up at him adoringly.

It made her sick.

The only part of the picture that didn't make her skin crawl was Emily snoozing away. The fact that her little head was pillowed against Bass' chest was forgiven. She was just a baby, after all.

But Charlie... no. Charlie could not - and would not - be forgiven for this sin. She didn't deserve it. Rachel knew that Ben and Danny might have let it slide but since they were dead, she was free to hate whomever she liked. Which now included Charlie as well as the majority of the population.

How dare Charlie accuse her - her own mother - of being responsible for the boys' deaths? How dare she accuse her of loving Danny more? She wasn't in her head, she didn't know what she was thinking.

It was true though. Rachel knew that. Danny had been a sickly child so he needed her attention. And Charlie had been nothing but a blonde, bull headed reminder of the fact that Miles didn't love her. Well, at least not as much as he loved shooting people. That didn't mean that she didn't love Charlie, it just wasn't as strong.

Clearly, Charlie had made her choice to be with Bass, though. Now Rachel was making hers.

And her choice was Emily.

Rachel was prepared to do whatever was necessary to save her granddaughter from being raised by that... that... _thing_. Bass would certainly have to go. The how had been a little harder to come up with - turning him in to the Rangers hadn't exactly gone the way it was supposed to - but she was confident that this plan would work.

Hell, if she played it just right she might even be able to get Charlie back on her side. But she'd have to be careful. If Charlie suspected that she was involved... well, she'd deal with it if it came to that. Lethally, if necessary.

Rachel followed Bass, Charlie, and Emily out of town to their small house with its mismatched windows and crumbling front porch. Sitting right in front of the door was her master plan at work. Bass picked up the dusty bottle of scotch. Even from a distance, she heard him whistle appreciatively.

"Wow, I guess somebody's really happy I'm still alive."

"What's the note say?" Charlie asked. He pulled the blue ribbon from around the neck of the bottle and handed it over to her. Charlie opened the note and shrugged. "It just says 'Congratulations'." She snorted. "For what? Still being alive?"

Bass slung an arm over her shoulder and steered her towards the door. "Actually, I think they're referring to our wedding."

"Oh, well that was nice of them."

He looked down at her and grinned. "Which means we have a few things to attend to."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well we can't accept a wedding gift without being properly married."

Charlie frowned up at him. "But you said that we are-"

Bass rolled his eyes, getting impatient with her cuteness, and kissed her deeply but pulled away too soon for her liking. "We are married. Now let's go make it official."

Charlie hurried into the house after him with a smile of her own and Rachel had to resist the urge to vomit. She couldn't believe - actually, yes she could - that Bass was using a single word written on a note to get laid.

She watched from a distance through the window as the two went about preparing for bed. Emily was cleaned and changed while Bass took the quickest bath anyone had ever seen, then he was back in the kitchen with Charlie, snuggled up against her with a glass in one hand and the other in places she didn't even want to think about. Rachel watched him down a glass of scotch with a smile, then sat back to watch. She knew that having his hand in Charlie's pants was as far as he was going to get tonight anyway. Charlie drank a glass as well and Rachel watched them kiss drowsily as they moved towards the bedroom. She ran around the side of the house to their bedroom window, finding both Charlie and Bass in a messy heap on the bed, their chests rising and falling steadily as they slept.

Quietly, though it's not like either of them would have woken up even if she made noise, Rachel entered the house and picked up her sleeping granddaughter. Emily squirmed a little in her sleep but otherwise remained silent. With a smile on her face, Rachel made her way out of the house and into the woods.

XxX

Bass woke slowly, his eyes straining in the sunlight, his ears only vaguely registering the 'thump, thump, thump,' coming from outside. His arms and legs felt heavy and he was feeling a little nauseous. Charlie, laying partially on top of him, was still deep in sleep. He rubbed her back as he yawned, noticing that she was still wearing her bra under her shirt.

Which was weird.

He took a mental inventory of himself, noting that he still had his boots on and that his belt buckle was digging painfully into his stomach.

Had they gone to bed fully clothed?

Sure, he'd been tired, but he could distinctly remember fooling around with his beautiful wife in the kitchen the night before. But even as he thought about it the memory seemed to blur and fade.

Man, he really needed to lay off the drink.

Charlie lifted her head groggily and glared over at their dingy window. "What the hell is that noise?" He followed her gaze, only just then noticing that the 'thump, thump, thump' was still going on outside.

"I'll go check it out." Bass crawled out of the bed, finding his legs even more uncooperative than usual. Outside, around the side of the house, he found Miles and Gale arguing over a long piece of wood while Ralph was instructing Aaron on the proper use of a hammer.

"Uh, guys? What the hell are you doing?" Miles' head shot up and he grinned.

"What's it look like? Where helping you with the renovation."

Bass rubbed the sleep from his eyes, trying to wake up his foggy brain. "Renovation?"

Ralph went over to him and slapped him on the back. "Well, yeah. You gotta have a place to put Emily in there. Y'all can't live in one room forever."

Bass looked around at the four men; one he'd only spoken to a handful of times, Emily's godfather (who probably wouldn't actually be much help), his surrogate father (who wouldn't be much help either), and his brother. The four of them made for an interesting little crew and the thoughtfulness behind the gesture caused moisture to fill his eyes.

But before he could even thank them, Charlie came bounding out of the house all smiles and sunshine. She looked around the group of men and her smile drooped a little. "Where's Em?"

"In her crib." Bass shrugged his shoulders in a '_duh_' sort of way. Charlie's face went from a frown to confused, to worried, and then to full blown fear in a heartbeat. Charlie flew back into the house with Bass hot on her heels, the others following quickly as well.

She dropped to her knees in a skid, landing in front of Emily's empty basket. Charlie's head shook from left to right as she sat for a moment and stared at the empty space where her daughter should have been. Then, as though she thought Emily might be hiding, she turned the basket upside down and they all watched as the blankets fell to the floor.

"Emily?" Charlie squeaked. It was so quiet that Bass barely heard it. Then it got much louder. "Emily!" She screeched. Charlie threw herself flat on the floor and looked under the bed.

But there was nothing there.

As Charlie ran out into the kitchen, still frantically searching for their daughter, Bass found that his brain seemed to have stopped working. Emily couldn't be gone. She couldn't. It wasn't possible.

He felt a warm hand on his shoulder and looked up to find Miles' dark brown eyes fixed on his face. "Bass..." his voice sounded far away. "BASS!"

Snapped back to reality, the sound of his wife's voice screaming for Emily pushed him into action. He grabbed his sword belt without so much as glancing at Miles and ran out through the - finally fixed - back door. Charlie was already out there looking in bushes and under rocks, Aaron was bent over the well trying to see inside, and he could hear Gale and Ralph calling for Emily out front.

Charlie pushed over a particularly large rock and after finding the space beneath it empty, slumped to the ground, crying out for her baby and sobbing in earnest. Something inside of him snapped. Fear and worry ceased to exist, replaced by white hot fury. He knelt down next to Charlie and kissed the top of her head. When she looked up at him with wide, terrified eyes, he only said one thing.

"We'll be back by sunset." And then he was gone.

XxX

Rachel watched her brilliant plan unfolding from her perch in the woods, Emily resting, snuggled in a blanket next to her. She felt little remorse for Charlie's distress. Emily would be perfectly fine and returned to her mother in due time. As soon as Bass tracked her down, she would kill him and then take Emily back home, claiming that she met up with Bass while searching for Emily as well and that he had died in his attempts to retrieve her.

It was a good plan.

And she couldn't wait to slit his pathetic, manipulative, little throat.

* * *

A/N First time I've written from Rachel's POV. I feel like I may have made her a little crazier than was really necessary, but it was so much fun! :-) Leave me a review if you have a second and let me know what you think.


	15. Chapter 15

All of his senses were on high alert. The blood pumping through his heart, the vein throbbing in his neck, the feel of cold, merciless steel in his hands. That tiny screeching noise the blades made when they crossed each other. Bird droppings on the ground. Squirrel tracks. The scent of water, probably a pond somewhere nearby, he wasn't sure. Bass hadn't ever had the chance to explore the area around their house, he'd been too busy getting familiar with his family first.

His family. Charlie, his ex-best friend/ex-bother-turned-brother-again's niece, the only person on the planet that had been able to destroy the President inside of him, the woman that had finally given him what he'd always dreamed of, his wife. And Emily, the most perfect little girl in the world, his sole reason for existing, his baby girl.

His family, now in danger.

And just like that it was like the President was back. There were no laws, no rules, no morals, when it came to messing with his family. Many people over the years had tried to use the people he cared about against him. He'd stopped them by simply killing them back then, so why not now?

Because it was different now.

Bass stopped in a small clearing, instantly recognizing the spot. It was the same little clearing Charlie had found him in all those weeks ago. That log was where he'd held his daughter for the very first time.

That was why it was different.

Shaking the murderous rage from his head, Bass backtracked a little bit, having not really paid attention on his way there. As he looked down at the dry ground he realized that his plan was never going to work. He wasn't a tracker! Sure, he could find a squirrel for dinner and follow a drunk in the rain, but tracking down a secretive kidnapper? No, he needed an expert.

As if in answer, Charlie's wails could be heard all the way from their house. Bass' first instinct was to go and comfort his wife, but he held back knowing that the only thing that would truly help her would be the return of their baby, safely in her arms. Yes, Charlie was an excellent tracker, but she was in no shape for this particular job.

He quickly labeled his guilt for not comforting her as 'unnecessary' and shoved it into a little box in the back of his mind to deal with later. That left plenty of room for the anger and determination to take hold.

Good, he would need that in order to deal with whatever incompetent moron thought that they could kidnap a member of _his_ family.

XxX

Miles had seen a lot in his life. Wars, disasters, betrayals... the image of a small child that had been blown into several pieces in the middle of a desert surfaced in his mind. He still had nightmares about headless children attacking him sometimes. He would beg them not to throw rocks at him only to look down and realize that they weren't rocks, but were severed heads.

Even that had never broken him. But this... the sight of his niece, technically his daughter, screaming for her baby and frantically searching the kitchen cabinets as if she thought Emily might be hiding there, just might do it.

"Charlie, please, just clam down," he pleaded.

"Calm down?" She screeched. "She's gone!" Charlie stopped, dropping the diaper bag she'd been looking in, and gave him a helpless look. "How can she be gone?"

Miles moved towards her slowly and gently pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry. If there's anyone that can find Emily, it's Bass."

Charlie clung to him and cried. She cried, and cried, until Gene showed up and jabbed a needle in her neck and she sagged against him. Miles carried her wordlessly to bed and gently covered her with the blanket before turning back to Gene in the kitchen.

"I didn't think word would travel that fast. Have they started the search party yet?"

Gene shook his head sadly.

"Then how did you know that Emily was missing?"

Gene slipped the syringe back into his bag as he wiped his eyes. "I didn't, well, at least not until it was too late." Miles gave him a confused look so he explained. "I went to talk to Rachel about the verdict last night but she wasn't in her room. I didn't think much of it, I figured she was probably trying to drink the whole thing away, but this morning when she still hadn't come home I went upstairs to check her bedroom. And I found... there were a few of Emily's old baby thing's on the bed - you know, the stuff that's too small for her now - and Rachel's pack was gone."

Miles leaned heavily against the kitchen counter, his mind speeding into overdrive. "You don't think... I mean, she wouldn't..." He looked up, desperately searching the older man's face. "Would she?"

Gene had no words in answer, merely a shrug.

Miles shook the shock from his mind, kicked aside his patience for Rachel and her shit, and grabbed his gun. Gene watched silently as the weapon slid into the back of his jeans.

"Please," he pleaded quietly, "save her if you can."

After decades of mutual dislike, the two of them had finally reached common ground on the subject that was Rachel. "If I can." Miles gripped his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "But I have a feeling it's already too late."

Gene nodded and watched as Miles took off in search of their family.

XxX

How did Charlie always make this look so easy? Tracking was actually really fucking hard!

Bass had no idea how far he'd wandered from the house or even if he was on the right track, but he kept moving anyway. Something deep in his gut told him to keep going. Charlie's cries had faded over an hour ago and so far the only thing he'd found was a broken beer bottle and a small toy car. But still he kept on going.

XxX

Rachel watched as Bass drew closer to her hiding place. The small clearing was surrounded by bushes and trees, one of which was tall enough to see everything in the surrounding area. Through the binoculars, she could see him making his way slowly through the undergrowth. She knew that in just a matter of minutes, he would find the last piece of the puzzle.

Looking down at Emily sleeping blissfully on the ground, Rachel smiled and relished the fact that soon, her granddaughter would live a worry free life.

XxX

Ignoring his aching knee, Bass continued on, stumbling over a tree root and nearly falling on an old rag doll.

Wait.

It was Emily's doll!

Bass picked up the ugly thing and hugged it tightly to his chest, as if the thing itself held all of the answers of his daughter's whereabouts. Pushing away all of those feelings, because emotions made for poor decision making, he followed the small footprints that he found along with the doll. He moved faster than he had all morning, not even noticing that the kidnapper's footprints were so small, or wondering who they may belong to. The only thing he cared about was killing whoever they belonged to.

The trail led him to a group of bushes that were awfully close together. He pulled his swords from his belt silently and then, without stopping to check the perimeter of the area first, burst into the clearing. He brandished his swords menacingly, but was dissapointed by the lack of people he found. Sliding his swords back into his belt, Bass looked around, his breath catching when he saw a small bundle of blankets underneath a tree, partially hidden by a bush. Rushing towards what he had no doubt was his daughter, he missed the threat hanging from the tree above him.

"Stop." A cool, female voice - which was sickeningly familiar - stopped him about three feet from where Emily was still sleeping. He was torn between grabbing for her and trying to deal with the threat against them.

Ultimately, he decided that safety was more important, so he kept still and looked up to find the source of the voice, internally dreading what he knew he would find.

"Rachel," he greeted quietly, using a tone that most people would run away from.

That was the thing though, Rachel wasn't most people.

"Good afternoon, Bass." She looked completely deranged, sitting up in a tree with twigs in her hair and a maniac smile on her face.

Fuck. He didn't have time for this. Frankly, he didn't give a shit about Rachel and whatever melodramatic bull she had going on at the moment. He just wanted Emily back. So ignoring the crazy woman above him, Bass moved towards the little bundle that was Emily again.

"I said, stop." Bass froze, not because of her words, but the telltale click that went with a gun being armed.

Taking a deep breath he looked up again, not particularly surprised to find a gun pointed at his face. "Come on, Rachel, are you really gonna kill me?"

She frowned, as if she thought he might have misunderstood the situation. "Of course. Why else would I have a gun?"

Truthfully, Bass could have thought of a millions reasons for having a gun, but he kept his mouth shut as she descended her tree. He backed up when her feet hit the ground, making her smile as she bent down to pick up Emily. She pointed the gun at him again with a giddy sort of smile.

"Just imagine, I'll take Emily back home to her mother and be the hero of the day. And I'll be Charlie's shoulder to cry on when I tell her that her beloved husband was killed in a heroic attempt to save Emily from her awful kidnappers."

Bass stared at Rachel in disbelief. How could one person be so crazy?

Tired of the conversation, the entire situation, Bass sighed. "Rachel, just... just stop. Ok? Just stop. You're holding Emily in one hand and a loaded gun in the other. You are going to hurt someone."

She arched a single, infuriating eyebrow. "Well, yes. That is the idea."

Bass pulled angrily at his hair and growled. "What is wrong with you! Why can't you just be happy for me and Charlie like a normal person?"

"Because you don't get to be happy," she shouted. "You destroyed my family, now I'm taking yours."

"God, you are so freaking stupid. My family - Charlie and Emily - is your family, too. The only thing you're doing is hurting yourself, again."

Rachel huffed at the accusation, like the thought hadn't even occurred to her. It probably hadn't. She shook her head angrily. "No, it'll be fine. Once you're dead, everything will go back to the way it was."

"Rachel, please don't do this," he begged.

"I don't have a choice."

She levelled the gun at his head and for a moment, Bass really thought that it was all over. He closed his eyes and Emily's smiling face, with her three teeth, flashed in his mind. Charlie, breathless and happy. Miles, laughing with a drink in his hand. Ralph and Opal holding hands, Aaron and Cynthia sharing a piece of apple pie. In that moment he saw all of the people he cared about one last time.

Cliché? Yes.

But absolutely true.

BANG!

His breathing stopped, his heart beating wildly in his chest. His ears ringing from the gunshot and his impending death.

Only he wasn't dead.

Bass stood in the middle of the clearing with a hand over his unbloodied chest, his ears ringing, not so much from the gunshot, but Emily's wailing. He opened his eyes, finding a very bloody Rachel Matheson slumped back on the ground and a crying Emily sitting on her chest. He shook his head, having a hard time comprehending that he was alive and that Rachel was dead.

How the hell had that happened?

Bass turned around to find Miles just at the edge of the clearing with a blank look on his face. He looked from the gun in Miles' hand to the neat hole in Rachel's head.

"Miles," he said weakly.

"You should get Emily." Miles pointed at the still screaming girl, making Bass mentally slap himself as he ran to pick her up off of the dead body. She calmed almost instantly, clinging to the front of his shirt and talking nonsense. He occasionally heard her say 'Mama' or 'Dada' but that was about it. Kissing the top of her little, blonde head, Bass made his way over to his best friend.

"Are you alright?"

Miles shrugged and Bass could already see the man mentally distancing himself from the entire situation. Despite the fact that he didn't understand _why_, Bass had always known that Miles really loved Rachel. He couldn't even imagine what Miles must be thinking.

"This wasn't your fault, Miles."

"I know."

They stood silently for a moment, Bass never loosening his hold on his baby girl.

"Come on, man, let's go home."

Miles nodded numbly, moving forward to pick up the corpse of the woman he loved before making their way back home.

XxX

As he piled the dirt onto Rachel's grave, Miles silently yelled at her for what she'd done. He had wanted to save all of them. Bring everybody back safe and sound, but after listening to Rachel go on, and on about getting rid of Bass, he knew that it would never end. If he had brought them all back then she would have just tried again, and next time he might not be there to stop her. He couldn't let that happen, so he'd shot her.

He was trying to justify what he'd done. It was harder than you might think.

As he watched Charlie approach him from Gene's back porch with a grinning Emily in her arms, he realized, that that was justice at work. A mother and daughter reunited.

"Hey, booger," he said gently. He poked at Emily's belly and listened to her squeal, it made a him smile.

"Bass told me what happened," Charlie said quietly. She reached out and squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry, Miles."

He shrugged and moved his hand to her shoulder to pull her close, hugging his little girls and kissing both of their heads. "I'll be ok."

Charlie sighed against him. "I know."

The stood there staring at Rachel's grave for a while, his arm around her shoulders and Emily babbling about doggies. Bass came to join them, slipping an arm around Charlie's waist. He bent down to kiss her and tickle Emily. "I love you guys."

Charlie leaned against him with a sad, but genuine smile. "Love you, too." Miles said nothing, though he squeezed Charlie's shoulder which she took to mean 'me too.' As the sun set, the three automatically turned together and walked back to the house, leaving the darkness behind them.

* * *

A/N I think that this is the end. Well, besides the epilogue which was actually the original idea for the story anyway, lol. I may write another chapter, I may not, I'm still undecided on that. I will be super busy all next week (understatement of the century there) so don't expect anything until the week after that, unless some miracle happens and I get an ounce of free time that I don't want to use for a nap. Which I doubt will happen. :-D I owe all of you a huge thank you for reading this and being so supportive, you guys really are amazing. Please review!


	16. Chapter 16

Bass approached the small house slowly, taking in the various broken windows and vine covered walls. He could hear the boys laughing about something about a half a mile back, Emily had disappeared not long after they left town through the hole in the fence in their backyard.

The old, rotten porch creaked under his worn boots and the door fell backwards off of the frame when he pushed it in. He shook his head sadly as he looked around the familiar tiny house. True, it had been years since his family had lived there - fourteen to be exact - but it had been their first home, and it held a special place in hist heart.

Two mice scuttled across the wooden floor and he scrunched up his nose. If Ryder and Mary-Ann were going to rent the place, they had a lot of work to do to get it cleaned up. He crossed into the small bedroom, frowning at the disgusting mattress. It had been bad when he had first moved in, now it was even worse. The window above the bed had been shattered - by bored kids or a storm - and the glass covered the mattress. He pulled on the rusty bed frame in order to get it out of his way, but stopped when something on the floor caught his eye.

It was a tiny, pale pink, hand knitted sock. Swiping glass out of his way, Bass plopped down on the old bed, trying to wipe the sudden tears from his eyes.

Booted feet sounded from the back door, a woman's voice carrying through the house. "Good news, the well is still in tact. We'll just have to clean it up a bit. Some of the stones have come loose." Long, honey blonde hair and a face identical to her mother's, Emily stood in the doorway to the bedroom staring at her father.

"Dad? You hear me?"

Bass looked up at his daughter. "Hmm? Yeah, sure honey."

She raised a single eyebrow, so ridiculously like Charlie it would have made him laugh if it weren't for the sad little sock in his hand. "You weren't listening, were you."

He shrugged. "Look what I found, it's one of your little socks." The tears burned again but he covered them up with a chuckle as Emily rolled her eyes.

"Mom's right, you really are a big baby."

"Am not."

"Are too."

Bass sighed. "Mom's right about you too, you know. You're just like Grandpa Miles."

"I am not!"

"Are too."

Emily glared at him but he merely smiled and stood up, going over to her and handing her the sock. Just like her mother, Emily was small statured, the top of her head barely reaching his chin. He kissed the top of her head.

"So the well needs to be fixed. Who's gonna help me with that when you're gone?"

She looked up at him, a small smile on her usually stoic face. "Isn't that why you guys had Aiden, so you would have a boy around to do all of your dirty work?"

As if on cue, a tall, skinny boy with dark brown curls burst through the backdoor carrying a bag on his shoulder and cackling like a madman, only to run right back out the front door. He was followed by a shorter, slightly rounder boy with reddish-brownish hair who was laughing just as much. Bass and Emily watched the pair through the empty door frame with only mild curiosity.

"Yeah," Bass said sarcastically, "because your brother's always so helpful."

Emily snorted, tucking the pink sock into her pocket. "I wonder what he's got in that bag," she added conversationally.

"Let's just hope its not another tarantula. Your Uncle Aaron's still complaining about that damn thing."

"Aiden said that that was Cameron's idea." Emily nodded her head in the chubbier boy's direction.

Bass raised a skeptical eyebrow. "More likely it was Grandpa's idea, but neither of them want to get him in trouble."

Neither of them said anything after that, both of them knowing it was probably true.

XxX

The bell chimed somewhere outside and Bass sighed with relief as his class of fifteen and sixteen year olds filed out of the room. It was Friday - finally - which meant that he had the whole weekend to work on the old house, but it also meant that it was almost time. This time tomorrow, Emily would be off on her own.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he grabbed his bag and headed for the door, meeting Aaron in the hallway. "Cynthia's making apple pies for tonight."

Bass grinned. "Good, something to brighten up my week."

"Oh come on, she'll be fine."

They walked quietly for a moment down the hall. "You really think so?"

Aaron nodded thoughtfully. "She's _Emily_, Bass. It's not like we're sending Cam and Aiden out on their own. Those two, I would worry about, but Emily's smart, she'll be fine." Bass nodded, accepting that their thirteen year old sons would definitely need more supervision than his nineteen year old daughter.

"I know she'll be ok," he admitted, "it's just hard to... to..."

"Let go?" Aaron supplied for him.

"Yeah."

The fatter man slung an arm over his shoulders and smiled. "Look on the bright side, with Emily out of the house, you'll have more time to focus on that menace you call a son."

"My son? What about yours? Half the crap they get into is Cam's idea!"

But before Aaron could respond, high pitched screaming broke out somewhere ahead of them. They made their way quickly to the front steps of the small school, finding a group of teenage girls huddled by the front door.

"I bet you Friday night dishes duty that whatever this is, was Cam's idea," Bass muttered.

"You're on."

They edged around the girls and found the source of their fear. An iguana was sitting, rather harmlessly, on the front steps. Bass rolled his eyes and shooed the girls away. "Relax, everything's fine, it's just an iguana."

The girls continued to mutter and sniffle, but he ignored them and picked the reptile up, looking around. Bass spotted the large oak tree in the yard and approached it quietly, Aaron right behind him. They each took a different side, moving around the tree to find Aiden and Cameron smothering their laughter in their hands.

"Nice work, guys," Bass said loudly, making both boys jump.

"Yeah, at least the iguana was inventive," Aaron added.

Aiden's eyes widened as he looked at Bass. "Hey, Dad."

Cameron smiled uncertainly. "Hey, Uncle Bass."

The two of them looked like boys that knew exactly how much trouble they were in, and they would have been, if it hadn't been for the chuckling coming from another nearby tree. Bass approached the tree with a frown, knowing exactly who that laugh belonged to after having heard it for most of his life.

"Miles." His oldest friend jumped at the sound of his voice. "Please tell me that this wasn't your idea."

Miles scrunched up his face and then gave him a lopsided smile. "It wasn't my idea?"

Bass glared at him. "Seriously?"

Well, at least he'd found out what Aiden had in that bag.

XxX

The Monroe house was filled to the brim, as per the usual for a Friday night. The old mailbox out front still read '_Ralph Wilcox_' but '_Sebastian Monroe_' had been painted just underneath it. It had been fifteen years since Ralph passed, sixteen since Opal died, and still every time he looked at the mailbox, Bass' heart ached.

Aaron and Bass both stood at the kitchen sink, Bass washing the dishes with Aaron drying. Cynthia and Charlie were outside scolding the boys while they watched them take the laundry down from the clothesline. Emily sat in the living room with her grandpa, her feet tucked up underneath her, lost in her thoughts. Miles stood in front of her with a glass in each hand, holding one of them out to her. She took it and sipped the amber liquid, letting it burn down her throat.

Miles sat down next to her, his silver streaked hair shining in the light of the fire. "Are you nervous?"

Emily took another sip of her drink and shrugged. "More excited I think."

He nodded understandingly. "Good, 'cause you have nothing to be nervous about. You're a Matheson and a Monroe, you'll have those Ranger idiots worshipping you in no time."

Emily let out a half-hearted chuckle, staring into her glass like it held all of the answers to the universe. Miles waited patiently. Much like her mother, Emily would talk when she was ready, and not a moment sooner.

"What if I get there... and... I'm terrible. What if they say I'm not Ranger material and send me home?" Her voice was low, and strained, and Miles knew that these were fears she had yet to voice with anyone else. "Grandpa, what if they see my name and send me straight back?" She looked at him then, her big blue eyes frantically searching for some comfort.

"Then to hell with them. If they send you home just because your name is Monroe, then it's their loss. You are an amazing fighter with a good head on your shoulders, you are exactly what a soldier should be. If they don't like it, then tell them Grandpa Miles said 'hi' and walk away. Then you can spend the trip home laughing about the terrified looks on their faces at the mere mention of my name."

Emily smiled and laid her head on his shoulder. "I'm gonna miss you, Grandpa," she whispered.

Miles wrapped an arm around her, furiously blinking back tears, and kissed the top of her head. "I'm gonna miss you too, booger."

XxX

The family stood around the town gate with sad faces, Miles holding onto the reigns of Emily's horse while she said goodbye. She embraced Cynthia and Cameron, then hugged her Uncle Aaron and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then she turned to Aiden, who was trying - and failing - not to cry.

"Oh come on," she whined. "Don't be like Dad, he's been crying all morning."

Bass sniffled loudly. "I have not." Charlie wrapped a supportive arm around her husbands back, smothering a giggle against his shoulder. The kids ignored them.

"I'm gon-gonna miss you," Aiden managed to say before hiding his face in his hands.

Emily looked up at her little brother, who was about four inches taller than her already, and rolled her eyes. "It'll be fine. It's not like I'm leaving forever."

"But I'm not gonna see you," he wailed.

She finally relented, pulling him into a hug and letting him cry on her shoulder. Charlie watched her daughter with a smile. When it came to things like emotions, Emily was like Miles, she bottled them up and kept them inside, always keeping people at arms length. Aiden was one of the few people that she made exceptions for.

Emily gently rubbed his back, whispering soothing words in his ear. Promising to write, most likely.

Charlie caught Miles watching her carefully. She knew that he was expecting her to break down at any moment. But she wouldn't, she had already promised herself to be strong. Strong for Emily, who needed her support, and strong for her boys, who would no doubt be overly sensitive for the next few weeks.

Emily finally got Aiden calmed down and released him, he immediately sought his mother out and clung to her like a child to a teddy bear. Bass didn't wait for his daughter to come to him, he went straight to her and nearly crushed her against him. Emily allowed it, turning her head to rest her cheek against his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart.

"My baby girl. I love you."

A single tear slipped down her nose, but she hid it by wiping it against his shirt. "Love you too, Daddy." He squeezed her tight then let her go, kissing her forehead before retreating towards Miles and the flask everyone knew he kept in his jacket pocket.

Emily turned to her mother. Aiden stepped away and clung to Aunt Cynthia instead, letting his sister have their mother to herself. Neither of them said a word for fear of breaking down completely. Charlie held her daughter tight and kissed her cheek, and then spent a ridiculously long amount of time adjusting Emily's hair on her shoulders. Finally, she made herself speak.

"You don't have to go, honey, you know that, right?"

Emily nodded, then shrugged. "I want to."

Both women nodded and Emily turned to take the reigns from her grandpa. "Take care, kid."

"You too, old man."

Miles huffed but winked at her just the same as she swung herself up onto the saddle. With one last wave and a smile, Emily set off down the road towards Austin.

"She'll be ok, right Dad?" Aiden asked.

Bass grabbed his son and wrapped an arm around him. "Yeah, your sister's smart. She'll be fine."

Charlie nodded along with everyone else as they contemplated Emily's journey, her own anxiety growing more and more as the speck that was her daughter got smaller and smaller.

Cameron's voice somehow managed to cut through the fog in her brain. "But what if she runs into someone on the way there and... you know... gets in a bad spot." Instantly, Charlie's mind created an image of her only daughter lying slaughtered on the ground. Cynthia made a shushing sound at Cameron, but the damage was already done.

"Bass, we should at least go with her. Just to make sure she gets there safe." Charlie turned to her husband with pleading eyes. "Anything could happen on the way there and she hasn't even had any training yet. What kind of parents are we, sending an untrained little girl off on her own!" Panic and fear gripped at her heart like a vice, making breathing feel impossible.

"Babe, she'll be fine. Now calm down-"

"Do not tell me to calm down, Bass. That's my baby out there all by herself!" Everyone took a step back, which only fueled her anger. "I'm going with her." She pounced on Bass and poked his chest. "And you can't stop me."

Charlie took off back into town, most likely to grab her horse and chase after Emily. Miles sighed, making Bass look over at him.

"I'll go get the horses, Cynthia pack us some food, and Aiden go pack some of Mom's clothes, 'cause I'm sure she'll forget."

Miles chuckled. "I'll get my shotgun. Oh, and the booze."

"It'll only be a few days. Can you really not go that long without a drink?"

He glared, looking a little offended. "It's not for me. We'll probably need it to knock Charlie out so we can drag her ass home. You know she's never going to want to leave once we get there."

Bass opened his mouth to deny it, but snapped it shut again. "Yeah, bring the booze." It was going to be a long trip.

* * *

A/N This was actually my original idea. I wanted to show the second generation of kids, all the Charloe stuff that came before it kinda came out of thin air. :-D Anyway, thanks for reading everybody, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Please review if you have a moment!


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